LIBRARY 
Connecticut  Agricultural  College 

Vol.    ^  01  3^- ^-  < 


Class  No.  -q7-1,  f^      -  H72r 


Cos^ 


Date    RjLXr-o-.^.^A^lmcu.J^^d'^'^ 


PLEASE  HANDLE 
WITH  CARE 

University  of 
Connecticut  Libraries 


3  11S3  DlEb7DED  b 


GAYIORORG 


iio'  '   as 


i^ej.       It 


I 


TWO  fFEEKS 

only  and  is  subject  to  a  fine  of 
TWO  CENTS  a  day  thereafter. 
It  will  be  due  on  the  day  indicated 
below.  APR  1  6  '54 


fiCT19'56 


HAY  12  '4# 


JAN  25  V937 
JUL  10 193*9 

APR  25 1941 


;I0V  1  7  {9 


-   ■*'  »»  *i 


W«  ?  JR  iw 


!fo\ 


JUL  ii 


JVlAi  ^ 


THE  HISTORY 


OP 


CONNECTICUT, 


FIRST  SETTLEMENT  OF  THE  COLONY. 

SETTLEMENT  OE  THE  CONNECTICUT  IIIVER  VALLEY.    CONNECTICUT  A  WILDER- 
NESS.   THE  PEQUOT  WAR  AND  ITS  CAUSES.    THE  FIRST  AMERICAN  CON- 
STITUTION.   POUNDING  OF  NEW  HAVEN  COLONY.    TROUBLES  WITH 
THE  DUTCH  AND  INDIANS.    FOUNDING  OF  NEW  LONDON.    THE 
CHARTER    THE  REGICIDES.    KING  PHILIP'S  WAR.     AD- 
MINISTRATION OF  ANM0S3.    JiRO^^TJiNAC'S  INVASION. 
CONSPIRACY  OF  DU^Llft  AND  COMBURY.    WAR 
AVITH  THE  EASTERN  INDIANS.    WAR  WITH 
FRANCE.     CAPTURE  OF  LOUISBOURG. 
EARLY  MANNERS  AND  CUSTOMS 
IN  CONNECTICUT. 

BY  G.   H.  HOLLISTER. 


TWO  VOLUMES:-YOL.  I. 


HARTFOED: 

PUBLISHED  AT  THE  AMERICAN  SUBSCRIPTION  HOUSE, 

L..STEBBINS    &    CO. 
1858. 


ExTEKED,  according  to  Act  of  Conp^ress,  in  the  year  1855, 

BY  G.  ]1,    ilOLLISTEli, 
ill  the  Clerk's  Office  of  the  District  Coin-t  of  Connecticut. 


Ibl  3^. 


R.  U.  HOBDS, 

Bternotvper,  HurtfonJ,  Ct. 


TO  THE  HON.  I.  WILLIAM  STUART. 

MYDEARSIE: 

It  gives    me   the    highest   pleasure    to   dedicate   this   work  to   you. 

I  KNOW  NO  GENTLEMAN  IN  THE  StATE  WHOSE  LOVE  FOR  ITS  HiSTORY  IS  SO 
MUCH    LIKE     A    POET'S    PASSION    FOR     HIS    MuSE,     AS    YOUR     OWN.      TuE    SoNS    OF 

Connecticut  will  agree  with  me  in  thanking  you  for  your  filial  care 
OF  the  dear  old  Charter  Oak.  In  or  will  that  genius  of  Wyllys  Hill 
forget  to  reward  the  tender  offices  that  nursed  its  second  childhood. 
Every  russet  leaf  that  lingers  among  its  hoary  locks  to  receive  the 
caresses  of  the  Indian  Summer,  will  whisper  your  name  ;  every  acorn  that 
drops  from  its  aged  hands  to  germinate  and  perpetuate  its  line,  will  keep 
your  memory  alive  in  the  hearts  of  its  children. 

Accept  this  slight  token  of  my  grateful  regard, 
And  believe  me  ever 

Your  Friend, 

G.  H.  HOLLISTER. 


PREFACE. 


It  is  not  witliout  much  reluctance  that  I  submit  this  work  to  the  examination 
of  the  public.  The  difBeulties  that  beset  the  path  of  the  author  of  a  local  history, 
are  not  likely  to  be  appreciated  by  the  majority  of  readers  whose  avocations  are 
for  the  most  part  connected  with  the  stirring  scenes  of  the  present  day  and  with 
the  bustle  of  active  life.  The  historian  of  the  United  States  is  at  liberty  to  choose 
those  facts  that,  from  their  large  proportions  and  prominence,  can  be  seen  as  the 
Green  Mountains,  the  Alleghanies  or  the  White  Hills  may  be,  beyond  the 
boundaries  of  states  or  other  arbitrary  lines  that  designate  their  locality  upon  the 
map.  He  may  speak  of  Washington,  of  Laurens,  of  Putnam,  or  of  Warren,  and 
feel  that  the  northern  and  southei'n  reader  alike  is  quickened  with  the  theme.  So 
free  is  he  to  choose  from  the  materials  before  him,  that  common  events  may  be 
passed  by,  common  incidents  may  be  left  out  of  view,  without  awakening  personal 
animosity  or  enkindling  local  jealousies. 

The  task  that  I  have  undertaken  is  widely  different.  The  following  pages  are 
not  a  record  of  the  doings  of  a  mighty  nation,  stretching  over  a  continent ;  but 
rather  of  a  people  humble  in  their  beginnings,  unambitious  in  their  aims ;  content 
with  the  moral  grandeur  that  alone  attends  the  discharge  of  their  duty,  and  in 
silent  unconsciousness  building  up  a  political  structure  more  sublime  in  its  beauty 
than  the  towered  palaces  of  kings. 

I  have  often  been  inquired  of  if  I  could  find  material  for  a  history  of  so  small 
a  state  ?  My  answer  is,  that  I  have  found  quite  too  much,  and  I  have  been  more 
at  a  loss  what  I  should  be  justified  in  leaving  out,  than  how  I  should  find  interest- 
ing matter  to  insert. 

I  am  much  indebted  to  Dr.  Trumbull,  for  going  before  me  and  gathering  as  he 
did  whatever  the  most  untiring  diligence  could  glean  from  records,  family  papers, 
oral  communications,  and  CA'en  traditions.  But  Trumbull  did  not  touch  upon 
the  American  revolution — that  part  of  our  history  by  far  the  most  interestincr  to 
the  people.  From  the  close  of  the  last  French  war,  down  to  the  adoption  of  our 
State  Constitution,  I  have  been  obliged  to  shape  my  course  without  any  general 
guide,  but  not  without  many  local  ones,  who  have  pointed  out  the  way  to  me  for  a 
little  distance  and  then  smilingly  committed  ine  to  the  care  of  others. 

My  main  object  in  undertaking  this  work  was  to  turn  the  attention  of  the 
descendants  of  the  Connecticut  emigrants  from  the  present  to  the  glorious  past ;  to 
remind  them  of  the  sacrifices,  the  toils,  the  sufferings  of  their  fathers'  fathers  ;  and 
to  awaken,  though  it  be  with  a  momentary  breath,  the  coals  that  once  glowed 
like  the  vestal  fire  day  and  night  upon  the  altar  of  Freedom.  Those  who  read 
these  pages,  will  find  that  they  have  little  need  to  be  ashamed  of  their  origin,  and 
that  it  can  be  said  of  them  as  truly  and  in  a  higher  sense  than  the  fifth  Henry 


VI  PEEFACE. 

could  say  to  his  troops  on  the  eve  of  battle,  that  "  their  blood  is  fet  from  fathers 
of  war-proof"  Indeed,  no  state  since  the  fall  of  Lacedsemon  has  ever,  in  the 
histoiy  of  the  woi'ld,  waged  so  many  wars  in  the  same  number  of  years,  with 
equal  success,  or  volimtarily  borne  such  heavy  burdens,  as  Connecticut.  K I  have 
failed  to  prove  these  facts,  I  am  sure  they  are  capable  of  proof  when  some  author 
more  worthy  of  the  theme  shall  address  his  energies  to  the  task.  Meanwhile,  I 
humbly  commend  my  labors  to  my  brothers  who  still  remain  upon  the  soil  of  the 
State,  and  to  those  who,  in  regions  far  remote,  yet  turn  their  eyes  with  a  fond 
regard  toward  the  green  hills  and  soft  valleys  where  lie  the  bones  of  the  men  who 
felled  the  forest  and  planted  the  vines. 


CONTENTS. 


CHAPTE.R  I. 

Fagk 

Settlement  of  the  Connecticut  River  Valley. — Wah-qui-ma-cut  visits 
the  governors  of  Massachusetts  and  Plynxouth  ;  he  describes  the 
Valley  of  the  Connecticut ;  he  wishes  the  English  to  settle  there ; 
Gov.  Winslow  visits  the  Valley;  tl^e  Warwick  patent;  Massa- 
chusetts planters  straightened  for  room  ;  their  removal  to  Con- 
necticut opposed ;  Wethersfield  settled ;  leave  granted  Hooker 
to  remove ;  first  settlement  of  Windsor ;  march  through  the  wilder- 
ness ;  arrival  of  Winthrop ;  severity  of  the  winter ;  sufferings  of  the 
settlers;  construction  of  the  General  Court;  journey  of  Hooker  to 
Hartford ;  the  valley  of  the  Connecticut;  its  primitive  appearance  ; 
its  aboriginal  inhabitants  ;  their  Anglo  Saxon  successors 17 

CHAPTER  II.     ■ 

Connecticut  a  Wilderness:  The  Pequot  War  and  its  causes. — Con- 
trast between  the  past  and  present ;  number  and  characteristics  of 
the  Indians ;  murder  of  Captains  Stone  and  Norton ;  Narragansetts 
and  Pequots;  John  Oldham  killed;  Gallop  captures  Oldham's 
vessel ;  Endicott  sent  to  'Block  Island ;  he  lays  it  waste ;  remon- 
strance of  Gardiner;  Endicott  invades  the  Pequot  country;  But- 
terfield  roasted  alive ;  Tilley  tortured  to  death ;  Gardiner  wounded ; 
an  English  shallop  captured ;  interview  between  Gardiner  and 
the  Indians  at  Saybrook  ;  Indians  attack  Wethersfield ;  declara- 
tion of  war  against  the  Pequots  ;  Mason  sails  for  Pequot ;  it  is 
decided  to  sail  to  Narragansett ;  their  arrival,  and  interview  with 
Miantinomoh  ;  conduct  of  the  Nihanticks ;  Mason  reinforced  by 
Narragansetts  ;  boastings  of  Uncas  ;  desertion  and  cowardice  of 
the  Narragansetts  ;  the  English  reach  the  Pequot  fort ;  Mason  bums 
the  fort ;  terrible  destruction  of  life ;  sad  condition  of  the  English 
soldiers  ;  return  to  Hartford 32 

CHAPTER  III. 

Prosecution  of  the  Pequot  War. — Sassacus  disgraced  in  the  view  of 
his  tribe ;  the  Pequots  burn  their  remaining  fort  and  disperse ; 
Massachusetts  prosecutes  the  war ;  Mason  joins  Stoughton  at  Pequot 
hai'bor;  pursuit  of  Sassacus;  sachems  murdered  at  "Sachem's 
Head ;"  the  "  swamp  fight"  at  Fairfield  ;  bravery  of  Captain  Mason ; 


Vlli  CONTENTS. 

Face 

and  Patrick ;  the  English  triumph ;  the  captives  and  booty  divi- 
ded ;  sufferings  of  the  captives ;  Sassacus  killed  by  the  Mohawks ; 
his  scalp  sent  to  Boston ;  the  remnant  of  the  Pequots  distributed 
among  the  captors ;  the  war  unnecessary ;  Endicott's  expedition 
ill-advised ;  Connecticut  compelled  to  take  the  field  in  self-defense ; 
it  became  a  war  of  extermination ;  the  Pequot  tribe  extinct.  ...     66 

CHAPTER  IV. 

The  first  American  Constitution. — Civil  and  religious  liberty  had 
their  rise  in  England ;  their  progress ;  Henry  VIII. ;  his  character 
and  career ;  his  destruction  and  confiscation  of  Monastic  buildings 
and  estates ;  his  religious  afiinities ;  progress  of  the  Reformation ; 

.  death  of  Henry  VIII.;  the  "reformation  party;"  the  Enghsh 
liturgy  framed ;  accession  of  Elizabeth ;  the  liberal  party  divided  ; 
character  of  the  queen  ;  strict  conformity  required ;  the 
High  Court  of  Commission  estabhshed  ;  its  despotic  nature ; 
clergymen  executed  for  non-conformity  ;  James  I. ;  union  of  Eng- 
land and  Scotland  ;  many  clergymen  silenced,  imprisoned,  or  exiled  ; 
conduct  of  the  king;  both  parties  intolerant;  the  puritans 
compelled  to  take  repugnant  oaths,  or  to  leave  the  country; 
their  motives  in  coming  to  the  new  world;  origin  of  human 
government;  the  founders  of  our  government;  then-  character- 
istics; the  Constitution  of  Connecticut ;  its  objects  and  provisions ; 
two  annual  assemblies  or  General  Courts;  mode  of  nominating 
candidates  for  oflftce ;  requisite  qualiflcatidns  for  office ;  the  several 
towns  to  send  four  deputies ;  convening  of  regular  and  special 
courts;  deputies  chosen  by  ballot;  the  supreme  power  of  the 
commonwealth  vested  in  the  GeneralCourt ;  our  Constitution  com- 
pared with  those  of  Europe  ;  it  recogniees  all  power  as  vested  with 
the  people;  no  taxation  without  representation;  the  king  not 
named  in  it ;  our  early  laws ;  Bancroft's  tribute  to  Connecticut.   .     7i 

CHAPTER    V. 

Founding  of  New  Eaten  Colony. — People  threatened  with  famine ; 
corn  purchased  of  the  Indians ;  colony  in  debt ;  heavy  taxes ; 
John  Mason  appointed  commander-in-chief  of  the  militia ;  Hooker 
presents  him  with  the  staff"  of  office ;  the  scene  described  by  Dr. 
Bushnell ;  Davenport,  Eaton  and  Hopkins  arrive  in  Massachusetts ; 
efforts  made  to  retain  them  in  that  colony ;  they  settle  in  New 
Haven  ;  their  first  Sabbath  tlierc ;  Davenport's  discourse ;  plantation 
covenant;  earthquake;  purclnise  of  the  land  at  Quinnipiack ;  char- 
acter of  the  planters  ;  meeting  in  "Mr,  Newman's  barn  ;"  constitu- 
tion adopted;  the  "seven  pillars"  of  the  church;  the  charge  of 


CONTENTS.  ix 

Paoe 

bigotry  considered  ;  purchase  and  settlement  of  Guilford  and  Mil- 
ford  ;  principal  settlars  of  Milford  and  Guilford ;  Whitfield,  Des- 
borough,  and  Leete ;  Ludlow ;  settlement  of  Fairfield  and  Stratford.     91 

CHAPTER  VI. 

Colonel  Fenwick  establishes  a  government  at  SayhrooTc. — Arrival  of 
Colonel  Fenwick,  Lady  Fenwick,  and  others,  at  Saybrook ;  a  civil 
government  organized  ;  the  first  proprietors  and  other  settlers ; 
quarrel  between  Sowheag  and  the  people  of  Wethersfield ;  attempts 
at  reconciliation ;  the  remnant  of  the  Pequots  take  possession  of 
Pawcatuck ;  a  war  against  them  resolved  on ;  Mason  and  Uncas 
invade  their  territory,  burn  their  wigwams,  carry  off  their  corn, 
wampum,  and  other  valuables ;  attempt  to  forma  "general  con- 
federation" of  the  colonies ;  the  several  towns  incorporated ;  all 
deeds,  mortgages,  and  conveyances  of  lands  to  be  recorded ;  the 
office  of  town  clerk  established ;  provisions  made  for  settling 
estates  of  deceased  persons  ;  difficulties  arising  from  Indian  titles ; 
purchase  of  Norwalk  and  Greenwich ;  purchase  of  lands  on  Long 
Island ;  purchase  of  Stamford ;  Captain  Turner  sent  to  Delaware 
Bay  to  buy  lands ;  character  of  the  Wethersfield  people ;  Mr.  Ware- 
ham  and  other  proprietors  of  Windsor ;  attempts  to  quiet  the  dis- 
turbances at  Wethersfield  ;  many  remove  to  Stamford  ;  principal 
proprietors  who  remained ;  a  union  of  the  New  England  colonies 
effected ;  New  England  Congress  ;  how  constituted ;  its  powers  ; 
Miantinomoh  and  Uncas ;  the  former  invades  the  territory  of  the 
latter ;  stratagem  of  Uncas ;  the  Narragansetts  put  to  flight ; 
Miantinomoh  captured ;  his  death,  and  burial-place 106 

CHAPTER  YII. 

Progress  of  Settlement.  Troubles  with  the  Dutch  and  Indians. — 
Claims  of  the  English  and  Dutch ;  discoveries  of  Adrian  Block ; 
the  Dutch  visit  and  purchase  lands  in  Connecticut ;  war  between 
the  Dutch  and  Indians ;  how  it  originated  ;  the  Indians  murder 
Mrs.  Hutchinson  and  her  family ;  the  Dutch  are  aided  by  Captain 
Underbill ;  Indian  depredations  and  murders  upon  the  English ; 
settlement  of  Branford ;  commissioners  of  the  united  colonies  meet 
at  Hartford  ;  agreement  with  the  Narragansetts  and  certain  Long 
Island  Indians ;  the  jurisdiction  of  Westfield,  and  South  Hamp- 
ton ;  purchase  of  Saybrook  fort,  &c.  of  Col.  Fenwick ;  a  duty  to 
be  paid  Col.  Fenwick;  Death  of  George  Wyllys,  Esq.;  sketch  of 
his  history ;  the  Charter  Oak  Place ;  the  Narragansetts  commence 
hostilities  against  Uncas ;  interference  of  the  English  ;  declaration 
of  war  against  the  Narragansetts  ;  the  Narragansetts  ask  permis- 


X  CONTENTS. 

Vags 

sion  of  the  commissioners  to  fight  Uncas,  and  are  refused ;  new 
treaty  with  them ;  settlement  of  Farmington ;  controversy  with 
Keift,  the  Dutch  governor  ;  complaints  of  the  commissioners 
against  him  ;  his  reply,  and  the  response  of  the  commissioners ;  the 
Indians  attempt  the  murder  of  Gov.  Hopkins  and  others;  the 
Mohawks  ;  first  commercial  attempt  at  New  Haven  ;  ship,  cargo, 
and  passengers  lost;  "the  phantom  ship;"  summons  to  Ninigret 
and  Pessacus  ;  Springfield ;  Winthrop's  claim  ;  death  of  Lady  Fen- 
►wick  ;  her  history  ;  her  tomb : 126 

CHAPTER  YIII. 

Founding  of  Neio  London. — Settlement  commenced  by  John  Win- 
throp,  Jr.,  and  Thomas  Peters  ;  disputed  territory ;  Peters  returns 
to  England ;  Winthrop's  commission  ;  settlers  exempt  from  taxa- 
tion ;  threatened  Indian  war ;  Indian  depredations ;  the  impost  for 
repairing  Saybrook  fort ;  the  controversy  decided  in  favor  of  Con- 
necticut ;  controversy  with  Gov.  Stuyvesant  of  New  Netherlands  ; 
burning  of  the  Saybrook  fort ;  attempt  to  assassinate  Uncas ;  IJncas' 
story  concerning  a  union  between  the  Narragansetts,  Nihanticks, 
and  Pequots ;  complaints  of  the  Pequot  captives ;  Capt.  Atherton 
sent  into  the  Narragansett  country  ;  his  interview  with  Pessacus ; 
Ninigret;  Gov.  Stuyvesant  visits  Hartford;  his  claims;  negotia- 
tions with  him  ;  Norwalk  ;  Middietown  ;  attempt  to  sail  for  Dela- 
ware Bay ;  Stuyvesant  interferes ;  French  agents  visit  New  Haven ; 
rumored  conspiracy  between  the  Dutch  and  Indians  to  extermin- 
ate the  English  ;  the  commissioners  in  favor  of  a  declaration  of  war ; 
Massachusetts  opposes  the  declaration \Zl 

CHAPTER  IX. 

Departure  of  Ludlow.  Death  of  Raynes,  Wolcott^  and  Eaton. — Fair- 
field and  Stamford  alarmed  by  the  Dutch ;  Fairfield  determines 
upon  war;  Ludlow  appointed  commander-in-chief;  sketch  of  Roger 
Ludlow ;  death  and  history  of  Gov.  Haynes ;  arrest  and  trial  of 
Manning ;  arrival  of  Sedgwick  and  Leverett  in  Boston ;  the  war 
with  the  Dutch  to  be  carried  on;  war  against  Ninigret;  Willard 
appointed  commander-in-chief  by  Massachusetts ;  his  expedition  a 
failure ;  the  commissioners  disappointed ;  the  refugee  Pequots ; 
Ninigret's  movements  watched ;  death  and  history  of  Henry  Wol- 
cott,  Esq. ;  Cromwell  desires  the  New  Haven  people  to  settle  in 
Jamaica ;  Greenwich ;  restlessness  of  Uncas ;  death  of  Gov.  Eaton ; 
sketch  of  his  life  and  character ;  Gov.  Hopkins'  decease  ;  his  pub- 
lic services,  and  benevolence;  Chcsebrough  settles  at  Stonington; 
the  Mistick  river  made  the  boundary  between  Connecticut  and 


CONTENTS.  XI 

Page 

Massachusetts ;  death  of  Gov.  Welles  and  removal  of  Gov.  "Web- 
ster ;  Pessacus  surrounds  Uncas  in  his  fort ;  Pessacus  defeated ; 
settlement  and  settlers  of  Norwich 177 

CHAPTER  X. 

The  Charter. — Grear  events  in  England  ;  accession  of  Charles  II. ; 
Connecticut  makes  a  formal  avowal  of  allegiance ;  petition  for  the 
charter ;  Gov.  Winthrop  appointed  agent  to  present  it  to  the  king ; 
he  arrives  in  England  ;  obtains  the  cooperation  of  the  Lord  Say 
and  Seal,  and  the  Earl  of  Manchester ;  presentation  of  a  ring  to  the 
king ;  the  prayer  of  the  petitioners  granted  ;  the  charter  receives 
the  royal  signature  ;  the  patentees ;  main  features  of  the  charter ; 
its  reception  in  the  colonj'-;  several  border  towns,  and  towns  on 
Long  Island,  petition  to  be,  and  are,  received  under  its  jurisdiction ; 
remonstrances  of  New  Haven ;  Davenport  a  principal  opponent  of 
the  union  ;  proceedings  of  the  legislatures  of  Connecticut  and  New 
Haven ;  Connecticut  lays  claim  to  Westchester,  and  Wickford ; 
committees  appointed  to  treat  with  the  towns ;  Gov.  Winthrop's 
return ;  Gov.  Stuyvesant  protests ;  Thomas  Pell's  commission ; 
Killingworth  named;  New  Haven  still  resists ;  Connecticut  attempts 
to  collect  taxes  within  the  New  Haven  jurisdiction;  resistance; 
"  the  New  Haven  case  stated ;"  Duke  of  York's  Patent ;  the  colo- 
nies alarmed ;  Col.  Nichols  arrives  from  England ;  he,  with  others, 
is  authorized  "to  determine  all  controversies;"  interview  between 
Gov.  Winthrop  and  Col.  Nichols ;  New  Amsterdam  is  surrendered 
to  Nichols ;  the  power  of  the  Dutch  in  America  is  annihilated ; 
New  Haven  reluctantly  yields  up  her  territorial  government ;  the 
two  colonies  are  united  under  the  charter ;  the  bounds  of  Connec- 
ticut defined  ;  the  last  General  Court  of  New  Haven  colony.  .  .  .  202 

CHAPTER  XI. 

The  Regicides. — Policy  of  Charles  IT. ;  his  endeavors  to  concihate  all 
parties;  presbyterians  admitted  to  his  counsels  and  share  the 
offices ;  the  house  of  lords  except  the  regicides  from  the  general 
pardon ;  some  of  them  fled,  and  some  were  taken  and  executed ; 
Whalley  and  Gotfe  arrive  in  Boston ;  treated  with  high  considera- 
tion ;  the  king's  proclamation  against  them  reaches  Boston ;  the 
judges  escape  to  New  Haven;  they  are  pursued  by  Kellond  and 
Kirk;  the  pursuers  are  detained  at  Guilford  over  the-  Sabbath; 
they  reach  New  Haven  ;  are  baffled  by  the  authorities  ;  they  re- 
turn to  Boston ;  the  judges  are  concealed  in  various  places ;  the 
search  for  them  still  kept  up ;  they  propose  to  surrender  them- 
selves ;  they  are  concealed  in  Milford  ;  they  proceed  to  Hadley  ; 


XH  CONTENTS. 

Page 

are  there  concealed ;  sketch  of  Whalley ;  sketch  of  Goffe ;  Col. 
Dixwell ;  sketch  of  his  life  and  services ;  he  is  concealed  in  New 
Haven  ;  Sir  Edmund  Andross'  visit  at  New  Haven ;  death  of  Dix- 
well  234 

CHAPTER  XII. 

King  Philip's  War. — Conduct  of  the  king's  commissioners;  they 
annul  purchases  of  the  Indians  ;  attempt  to  form  an  independent 
government  in  Narragansett ;  counties  established ;  Lyme  named ; 
Haddam,  Simsbury,  and  Wallingford  incorporated ;  controversy 
about  Paugasset  (Derby ;)  the  town  incorporated ;  dispute  in  the 
church  at  Stratford ;  the  parties  separate ;  settlement  of  Pamperaug 
(Woodbury  ;)  adventures  of  the  emigrating  party  ;  Philip,  the 
sachem  of  the  Wampanoags  ;  his  conspiracy  ;  attempts  to  chris- 
tianize the  Indians ;  the  prospects  of  Philip  ;  apprehensions  of  the 
English ;  the  crisis  approaches ;  Swansey,  Taunton,  Middleborough, 
and  Dartmouth  destroyed  by  the  Indians ;  Philip  attacked  and 
pursued ;  Captains  Hutchinson  and  Beers,  and  several  of  their  men 
killed;  Major  Treat;  services  of  Connecticut;  the  Narragansetts 
and  Wampanoags ;  treaty  with  the  Narragansett  sachems ;  rewards 
offered  for  Philip ;  Capt.  Lathrop  slain ;  Mosely  attacked  and 
driven  back;  Major  Treat's  timely  arrival ;  the  enemy  repulsed ; 
means  for  the  general  defense;  Springfield  destroyed;  Major  Treat 
drives  the  enemy  from  the  place,  and  saves  the  people  from  promis- 
cuous slaughter ;  vote  of  thanks  to  Major  Treat ;  Philip  attacks 
Hadley ;  he  is  driven  back  by  the  Connecticut  troops ;  defense  of 
the  eastern  towns ;  Congress  decided  to  raise  one  thousand  men  ; 
the  Narragansetts  to  be  attacked  in  their  principal  fort ;  union  of 
the  forces  from  Massachusetts,  Connecticut,  and  Plymouth ;  attack 
upon  the  fort ;  dreadful  slaughter ;  the  enemy  dispersed — six  hun- 
dred wigwams  burned ;  three  Connecticut  captains  killed ;  a  dearly 
bought  victory ;  the  war  continues ;  Nanuntenoo  captured ;  he 
spurns  a  conditional  offer  of  life  ;  he  is  executed  ;  Major  Talcott's 
expedition ;  "  the  long  and  hungry  march ;"  he  is  stationed  at  West- 
field  ;  he  attacks  a  party  of  the  enemy  near  the  Housatonick ;  the 
sachem  of  Quoboug  and  twentj^-four  of  his  warriors  killed 253 

CHAPTER  XIII. 

Andross  attempts  to  land  at  Sayhrooh. — The  Duke  of  York's  new 
patent ;  the  duke  commissions  Andross  as  governor  of  New  York  ; 
Andross  disregards  previous  boundaries;  war  with  Philip  still 
pending ;  Andross  approaches  Saybrook ;  the  militia  rally ;  legisla- 
tive instructions  to  Capt.  Bull  and  Mr.  Chapman ;  they  are  to  act 


CONTENTS.  Xlll 

Page 

in  self-defense ;  the  protest  of  the  General  Assembly ;  Andross  and 
his  suite  permitted  to  land;  his  object;  his  clerk  is  ordered  to  read 
aloud  his  commission,  &c. ;  Capt.  Bull  prevents  him ;  the  militia 
escort  Andross  to  his  boat;  a  statement  to  be  made  to  the  king; 
death  of  Gov.  Winthrop ;  his  public  and  private  life ;  the  Winthrop 
letters 288 

CHAPTER  XIV. 

Administration  of  Andross. — The  colony  involved  in  debt ;  heavy , 
taxes  levied ;  she  takes  possession  of  the  country  of  Nanuntcnoo ; 
the  Andross  aifair;  committee  on  claims  and  jurisdiction  appoint- 
ed ;  their  decision  in  favor  of  Connecticut ;  a  new  enemy  appears  ; 
the  marquis  of  Hamilton's  claim  ;  complaints  against  the  colonies; 
Waterbury  settled  and  incorporated ;  the  Naugatuck  valley ;  James 
II. ;  Writs  of  quo  warranto  ;  Mr.  Whiting  appointed  agent  to  Eng- 
land ;  conduct  of  the  king ;  charters  annulled  ;  Connecticut  alarm- 
ed ;  the  General  Assembly  refuse  to  direct ;  Mr.  Whiting's  elForts 
unavailing ;  Andross  arrives  in  Boston  as  governor  of  New  England ; 
he  informs  Connecticut  of  his  appointment ;  is  "commissioned  to 
receive  their  charter;"  appeals  to  their  loyalty  ;  they  petition  the 
king,  without  avail ;  Andross  visits  Hartford ;  his  reception  by  the 
General  Assembly ;  he  publicly  demands  the  charter;  remonstrance 
of  Gov.  Treat ;  debate  prolonged  until  evening  ;  the  charter  sud- 
denly disappears ;  Andross  assumes  the  government ;  he  proceeds 
to  appoint  oflBcers ;  many  odious  measures  adopted  and  enforced 
by  him  ;  he  declares  the  land  titles  of  the  colonists  valueless ;  or- 
ders that  new  titles  or  patents  shall  be  purchased ;  abdication  of 
James  II. ;  Andross  seized  and  confined  in  Boston ;  the  charter 
officers  resume  the  government ;  the  advent  of  king  William  wel- 
comed by  the  colonists ;  the  charter  oak ;  Indian  legend ;  the 
charter  concealed  by  Capt.  Wadsworth -  .  .  300 

CHAPTER  XV. 

Frontenac's  Invasion.  Attempt  upon  Quebec. — The  French  and  In- 
dians threaten  northern  New  York ;  Leisler  asks  the  aid  of  Con- 
necticut ;  assistance  rendered ;  Count  Frontenac  invades  the  fron- 
tier settlements ;  Schenectady  destroyed ;  horrible  massacres ;  set- 
tlement at  Salmon  Falls  broken  up ;  Massachusetts  asks  the  assist- 
ance of  Connecticut ;  she  responds  to  the  call ;  Glastenbury  incor- 
porated ;  New  England  and  New  York  determine  to  invade  the 
enemy's  country ;  plan  of  operations ;  Fitz  John  Winthrop  appoint- 
ed commander-in-chief;  he  arrives  at  Wood  Creek;  the  "five  na- 
tions" refuse  to  cooperate  with  him ;  no  canoes  in  readiness ;  he 


XIV  CONTENTS. 

Page 

retreats  to  Albany ;  Sir  William  Phipps'  fleet  reach  Quebec ;  he  at- 
tacks the  city,  but  soon  re-embarks ;  conduct  of  Leisler  and  Mil- 
born  ;  Leisler  seizes  and  court-martials  Winthrop ;  he  is  rescued 
by  the  Mohawks ;  letter  from  the  authorities  of  Connecticut ;  the 
General  Assembly  sustain  Winthrop  ;  vote  of  thanks ;  Windham 
incorporated ;  Frontenac  invades  the  Mohawk  country ;  Col.  Schuy- 
ler pursues  the  French ;  Connecticut  sends  more  men  to  Albany ; 
Gov.  Phipps  asks  for  more  men ;  Capt.  Whiting  sent  to  his  aid ; 
Gov.  Fletcher  of  New  York;  he  claims  the  command  of  the  militia 
of  Connecticut;  Gen.  Winthrop  sent  as  agent  to  England;  his  in- 
structions ;  Fletcher  visits  Hartford ;  attempts  to  enforce  his 
authority  over  the  militia ;  scene  between  him  and  Capt,  Wads- 
worth 325 

CHAPTER  XYI. 

Conspiracy  of  Dudley  and  Cornbury. — Money  raised  for  the  defense 
of  Albany  ;  it  is  paid  to  Gov.  Fletcher  ;  result  of  Winthrop's  mis- 
sion to  England ;  satisfactory  to  Connecticut ;  services  of  the 
colony;  enormous  taxation ;  dishonorable  conduct  of  Fletcher ;  the 
Earl  of  Bellamont ;  committee  appointed  to  wait  upon  him ;  Win- 
throp elected  governor ;  two  houses  of  the  legislature  established ; 
Plainfield,  Colchester,  and  Durham  incorporated ;  New  York  and 
Connecticut  boundary  line;  "Oblong;"  Voluntown,  Mansfield, 
Danbury,  and  Canterbury,  incorporated ;  war  against  Pi'adce  and 
Spain ;  the  colonies  involved  in  the  conflict ;  Connecticut  sends 
troops  to  aid  Massachusetts  and  New  York ;  friendly  Indians  to  be 
enlisted ;  Dudley  and  Cornbury ;  their  hatred  to  Connecticut ; 
Dudley's  charges  against  her ;  his  attempt  to  reunite  all  the  char- 
ter governments  to  the  crown  ;  interference  of  Sir  Henry  Ashurst ; 
Dudley  fails  in  his  project;  further  attempts  to  rob  Connecticut  of 
her  charter;  new  charges  preferred  against  her;  Bulkley's  "Will 
and  Doom;"  the  colony  charged  with  oppressing  the  Mohegans; 
the  queen  appoints  commissioners  to  investigate  the  charge; 
survey  and  map  of  the  Mohegan  country ;  meeting  of  the  commis- 
sioners ;  Connecticut  not  officially  notified  ;  an  ex  parte  trial ;  ver- 
dict against  Connecticut ;  the  trial  of  the  colony  for  her  charter  ; 
noble  defense  by  Sir  Henry  Aslmrst ;  the  decision  favorable  to 
Connecticut ;  her  enemies  frustrated 343 

CHAPTER   XYII. 

Death  of  Treat.  Surrender  of  Port  Royal. — Colonies  again  alarm- 
ed ;  rumors  of  a  French  and  Indian  invasion ;  removal  of  Indians ; 
Dudley's  proposed  expedition  against  Canada ;  death  of  Gov.  Win- 


CONTENTS.  XV 

Faod: 

throp ;  Gurdon  Saltonstall  chosen  governor ;  sketch  of  the  life  and 
services  of  Gov.  Treat;  Connecticut  raises  troops  for  Canada; 
Nicholson  commands  the  land  army ;  non-arrival  of  the  fleet  from 
England ;  failure  of  the  expedition ;  Bills  of  Credit  issued ;  Congress 
of  governors;  address  to  the  queen;  Gov.  Saltonstall  appointed 
agent  to  England ;  Ridgefield  incorporated ;  sachems  visit  England 
with  Col.  Schuyler ;  their  interview  with  the  queen ;  more  troops 
raised ;  provincial  fleet  reaches  Port  Royal ;  the  fort  surrenders ; 
fleet  arrives  from  England ;  it  is  destitute  of  supplies ;  men  and 
provisions  speedily  raised  ;  expedition  against  Canada ;  wreck  of 
the  English  fleet ;  land  army  return  ;  Hebron,  KiUingly,  Coventry, 
New  Milford,  and  Pomfret  incorporated 367 

CHAPTER  XVIII. 

War  with  the  Eastern  Indians. — French  Jesuits ;  their  influence  with 
the  Indians ;  Father  Ralle ;  incursions  of  the  French  and  Indians ; 
eastern  Massachusetts  alarmed ;  Col.  Walton  sent  to  defend  the 
eastern  frontier ;  complaints  of  the  Indians  against  the  English ; 
expedition  against  Norridgewock ;  the  enemy  had  fled ;  the  Eng- 
lish carry  off  the  books  and  papers  of  Father  Ralle ;  the  Indians 
retaliate ;  they  burn  Brunswick,  and  capture  sixteen  English  fish- 
ing vessels ;  war  formally  declared ;  Governors  Shute  and  Burnett 
call  upon  Connecticut  for  troops ;  she  determines  to  defend  her 
own  frontiers  and  the  county  of  Hampshire ;  expeditions  of  West- 
brook,  Moulton,  and  Lovell ;  Ashford,  Tolland,  Stafford,  Bolton, 
and  Litchfield,  incorporated 382 

HAPTER  XIX. 

WofT  with  France.  Capture  of  Louislourg. — Prospect  of  a  war  be- 
tween England  *and  Spain ;  the  colony  takes  measures  to  defend 
herself ;  the  war  declared  ;  Admiral  Vernon  sent  against  the  Span- 
ish West  Indies ;  measures  for  raising  troops  in  Connecticut ;  Bills 
of  Credit  issued  ;  union  of  Lord  Cathcart's  fleet  with  that  of  Ver- 
non ;  unsuccessful  attack  upon  Carthagena ;  pestilence  ;  fearful 
mortality  among  the  troops ;  Gov.  Oglethorpe ;  England  declares 
war  against  France ;  French  privateers ;  the  commerce  of  New 
England  destroyed  by  them ;  the  English  determine  to  capture 
Louisbourg ;  measures  adopted  to  that  end ;  arguments  for  and 
against  the  project ;  the  enterprise  temporarily  abandoned ;  the 
determination  is  renewed  ;  troops  raised  and  officers  appointed  in 
Connecticut;  Sir  William  Pepperell  appointed  commander-in-chief; 
the  troops  sail  for  Louisbourg ;  they  are  joined  by  Commodore 
Warren's  fleet ;  a  part  of  the  troops  effect  a  landing ;  they  take 


XV]  CONTENTS. 

Page 

surrender  of  Louisbourg ;  services  of  Connecticut ;  England 
resolves  to  pursue  her  conquests  ;  French  fleet  sails  for  America  ; 
sudden  death  of  D'Anville  and  D'Estournelle ;  Jonquiere's  plans 
defeated 390 

CHAPTER  XX. 

.Early  Manners  and  Customs  m  Connecticut. — Preliminary  remarks; 
the  undistinguished  men  and  women  of  the  colony ;  the  early  plan- 
ters were  of  good  descent ;  their  heraldric  bearings  ;  their  disre- 
gard for  the  past;  servants;  the  pedigree  of  the  first  settlers;  their 
industry  and  privations ;  the  dignity  of  labor  ;  civil,  military,  and 
ecclesiastical  titles ;  classes  or  grades  of  society ;  architecture ; 
superstitions  of  the  people  ;  their  meals  ;  furniture  ;  modes  of 
conveyance ;  the  charge  of  bigotry  considered ;  Fast  and  Thanks- 
giving; customs  at  funerals;  peculiarities  of  dress  and  ornament.  415 

CHAPTER  XXI. 

The  established  Religion  of  C onnecticut.-^—RQ\\gio\i5  opinions  of 
the  settlers ;  their  motives  in  coming  to  New  England ;  the 
first  churches  and  ministers  of  Connecticut ;  the  specific 
duties  of  pastors,  teachers,  ruling  elders,  and  deacons ;  quali- 
fications for  church-membership  ;  the  half-way  covenant ;  con- 
struction and  views  of  the  churches ;  religious  controversies ; 
Rev.  Henry  Smith  and  the  people  of  Wethersfield ;  death  and 
character  of  the  Rev.  Thomas  Hooker  ;  Rev.  James  Pier- 
pont ;  the  Hartford  controversy' ;  dissensions  at  Wethersfield ; 
the  Russell  and  Hollister  controversy ;  Mr.  Russell  removes 
to  Hadley ;  assembly  of  ministers  ;  difficulties  at  Windsor  ; 
the  Saybrook  platform  ;  the  Ruggles  controversy ,  at  Guilford  ; 
the  "  Great  Revival  ;"  opposition  to  the  measures  of  the  re- 
vivalists ;  errors  and  irregularities  ;  laws  passed  to  suppress 
the  "new  lights  ;"  difficulties  at  Branford,  Milford,  New  Haven, 
and  Wallingford  ;  religious  toleration  ;  practical  operation  of 
the  new  system  ;  concluding  remarks 446 


APPENDIX.  • 

The  Patent  of  1631 :  475 

The  Charter  of  1662 476 

Letter  from  Charles  H 484 

New  Haven  Case  Stated 484 


HISTORY 


COIIECTICTJT 


CHAPTER  I. 

SEHLEMENT  OF  THE  CONNECTICUT  EIYER  VALLEY. 

Some  time  during  the  year  1631,  an  Indian  Sachem  visited 
the  governors  of  the  Massachusetts  and  Plymouth  colonies  in 
the  guise  of  a  suppliant.  He  said  his  name  was  Wah-qui- 
ma-cut.  He  described  the  country  occupied  by  his  own  and 
kindred  tribes  as  a  rich,  beautiful  valley,  abounding  in  corn 
and  game,  and  divided  by  a  river  called  "Connecticut," 
which  he  represented  as  surpassing  all  other  streams,  as  well 
in  its  size  and  in  the  purity  of  its  waters,  as  in  the  excellence 
and  variety  of  the  fish  that  swam  in  it,  and  the  number  of  the 
otter  and  beaver  that  might  be  found  along  its  banks.  He 
begged  that  each  of  the  colonies  would  send  Englishmen  to 
make  settlements  in  this  valley.  He  even  offered  to  give  the 
new  emigrants  eighty  beaver  skins  annually,  and  supply  them 
with  corn,  as  an  inducement  to  make  the  trial ;  and  proposed 
that  two  men  should  first  be  delegated  to  view  the  country, 
and  make  report  to  the  governors,  before  any  steps  should 
be  taken  towards  a  removal  there. 

The  governor  of  the  Massachusetts  received  him  courte- 
ously, but  declined  to  entertain  his  proposition.  Governor 
Winslow,  of  Plymouth,  without  directly  acceding  to  it,  was 
unable  wholly  to  dismiss  it  from  his  mind ;  and  not  long  after 
went  himself  to  spy  out  the  riches  of  this  Indian  Paradise.* 
He  found  it  in  primitive  loveliness.  All  that  his  eye  rested 
on  was  wild  and  coy,  as  if  no  foot  save  that  of  the  savage 

*  Morton's  Memorial,  395  ;  Brodhead,  i.  210,  233  ;  Trumbull,  i.  30. 

2 


18  HISTORY  OF  CONNECTICUT. 

had  trodden  there  since  the  dawn  of  creation.  So  Winslow 
doubtless  thought,  for  he  named  himself  the  "  discoverer"  of 
the  River  and  the  Valley. 

Governor  Winslow  must  have  made  a  very  favorable 
report  of  the  country,  for  we  find  during  the  following  year 
other  explorers,  from  Plymouth,  searching  the  Connecticut 
river  up  and  down ;  and,  as  early  as  October,  1633,  they  had, 
under  the  sanction  of  the  colony,  established  a  trading  house 
near  the  mouth  of  the  Tunxis  river  in  Windsor,  and  were 
already  carrying  on  a  successful  traffic  in  furs  with  the 
Indians,  in  defiance  of  the  Dutch,  from  Manhattan,  who  just 
before  had  erected  a  house  called  "  Good  Hope,"  at  Hart- 
ford,* but  six  miles  below,  and  who  vowed  vengeance  against 
the  English  traders,  who  had  encroached  upon  the  rights  of 
the  "original  discoverers  of  The  Fresh  River."  William 
Holmes  was  the  man  who  had  been  selected  by  the  Governor 
of  Plymouth  to  build  the  trading  house  at  Windsor.  With 
the  frame  of  this  house  fitted,  and  all  the  materials  requisite 
for  completing  it.  Holmes,  with  his  commission  in  his  pocket, 
set  sail  for  the  mouth  of  the  Connecticut.  He  passed  up  the 
river  without  meeting  with  any  resistance,  until  he  arrived 
at  the  Dutch  fort  at  Hartford.  This  fortification  was  not 
very  formidable,  having  only  two  small  pieces  of  ordnance ; 
but,  such  as  it  was,  its  little  garrison  bristled  with  opposition 
at  sight  of  the  ill-omened  sail,  stood  gallantly  by  their  guns, 
and  commanded  Holmes  "  to  strike  his  colors,  or  they  would 
fire  upon  him."t     But  Holmes  was  not  a  man  to  be  intimi- 

*  Brodhead,  (in  his  "  History  of  the  State  of  New  York,"  vol.  i.  p.  238,) 
states  that  this  Dutch  trading  house  was  projected  in  1623,  but  was  not  built 
until  1633,  when  the  new  director  general,  Van  Twiller,  "  dispatched  John  Van 
Curler,  one  of  his  commissaries,  with  six  others,  to  finish  the  long-projected  fort 
on  the  Connecticut  river,  and  to  obtain  a  formal  Indian  deed  for  the  tracts  of  land 
formerly  selected."  Through  the  negotiations  of  Van  Curler,  the  Dutch  claimed 
to  have  purchased  a  tract  of  land  of  the  Pequots,  as  conquerors,  "  with  the  good- 
will and  assent  of  Sequeen."  A  few  years  afterwards,  however,  (July  2,  1640,) 
Sequasson,  son  of  Sequeen,  testified  before  the  court  at  Hartford,  "  that  he  never 
sold  any  ground  to  the  Dutch,  neither  was  at  any  time  conquered  by  the  Pequots, 
nor  paid  any  tribute  to  them." 

+  Bradford,  in  Hutchinson,  vol.  ii.  p.  435  ;  Brodliead,  vol.  ii.  p.  241. 


[1634,]  holmes'  EXPEDITIOK  19 

dated  by  words.  He  had,  he  said,  a  commission  from  the 
governor  to  go  up  the  river,  and  he  should  go.  A  fierce  rep- 
lication from  the  Dutch  followed ;  but,  whether  their  guns  had 
no  powder  and  ball  in  them,  or  whether  they  thought  it  best 
to  save  their  ammunition  against  a  time  of  greater  need,  they 
suffered  the  English  to  sail  by,  and  erect  their  trading  house, 
and  surround  it  with  palisades,  before  they  made  any  further 
attempt  to  restrain  them.  But  Holmes  soon  found  difficul- 
ties beginning  to  thicken  around  him.  The  sachems  of  the 
river  tribes  had  been  driven  away  from  their  territories  by 
the  Pequots,  and  Holmes,  after  bringing  them  back  in  his 
vessel,  had  purchased  of  them  such  land  as  he  found  requisite 
for  carrying  out  his  enterprise.  Enraged  that  their  old  mas- 
ters were  restored  by  the  Enghsh  to  their  former  dominion, 
the  petty  chiefs  along  the  river  incited  the  Indians  to  acts  of 
violence  against  the  traders. 

Meanwhile,  the  news  of  Holmes'  expedition  reached  the 
ears  of  the  Dutch  governor,  Wouter  Van  Twiller,  at  Fort 
Amsterdam.  Astonished  at  the  presumption  of  the  intruders, 
his  excellency  immediately  sent  a  detachment  of  troops  to 
the  infested  district,  with  instructions  to  drive  the  English 
traders  from  the  river.  It  is  probable  that  this  company  was 
joined  by  allies  from  "  Good  Hope,"  for  when  it  presented 
itself  without  the  palisades  at  the  mouth  of  the  Tunxis,  its 
ranks  numbered  full  seventy  armed  men,  under  spread  ban- 
ners, inflamed  with  a  noble  ardor,  that  boded  no  good  to 
Holmes  and  his  men.  But  all  this  martial  array,  so  near  his 
gates,  though  attended  with  the  promise  of  utter  annihilation 
unless  he  acceded  to  their  terms,  like  the  threats  at  "  Good 
Hope,"  produced  an  effect  the  very  reverse  of  what  had  been 
intended.  The  fur  trader  and  his  men  stood  on  the  defen- 
sive. It  was  obvious  there  must  be  bloodshed  before  the 
colors  of  the  States  General  could  be  displayed  inside  of  the 
palisades — an  awkward  situation  for  an  invading  army,  from 
which  it  was  prudently  extricated  by  a  parley,  and  a  well- 
timed  retreat.* 

*  De  Vries'  Voyages,  p.  150;  Winthrop,  vol.  i.  pp.  123,  148,  153,  386; 
Brodhead,  Vol,  i.  p,  242. 


20  HISTORY  OF  CONNECTICUT. 

Thus  ended  the  exploits  of  Wouter  Van  Twiller  and  the 
garrison  at  "  Good  Hope,"  against  the  Plymouth  traders,  leav- 
ing the  latter  in  the  bloodless  and  peaceful  possession  of  the  soil, 
to  contend,  as  best  they  might,  with  the  rigors  of  impending 
winter,  and  to  abide  their  time  for  the  coming  on  of  the  calam- 
ities that  awaited  them,  of  which  I  am  to  speak  in  their  order. 

Sometime  before  Winslow  discovered  the  Connecticut  river 
and  the  lands  adjacent,  the  country — possibly  from  the  repre- 
sentations of  Indian  runners,  who  had  enlarged  upon  its 
beauties  at  Boston  and  Plymouth,  or  perhaps  from  that  love 
of  the  marvelous  that  causes  men  to  desire  most  earnestly 
whatever  is  unexplored  and  untried — had  been  sought  after 
with  no  ordinary  solicitude  by  men  of  no  vulgar  rank.  In 
the  course  of  the  year  1630,  the  famous  Plymouth  Company, 
the  mother  corporation  that  gave  life  to  all  the  New  England 
grants,  conveyed  the  whole  temtory  of  what  was  subse- 
quently called  the  colony  of  Connecticut,  and  much  more, 
to  Robert  Earl  of  Warwick ;  and  the  better  opinion  is,  that 
this  grant  was,  during  the  same  year,  confirmed  to  him  by  a 
patent  from  Charles  I.  But  as  no  trace  can  be  found  of  any 
such  patent,  it  has  been  doubted  if  it  ever  had  an  existence.* 
On  the  19th  of  March  of  the  next  year,  Robert  of  Warwick 
executed  under  his  hand  and  seal  the  grant  since  known  as 
the  old  patent  of  Connecticut,  wherein  he  conveyed  the  same 
territory  to  Viscount  Say  and  Seal,  Robert  Lord  Brooke, 
John  Hampden,  Pym,  Sir  Richard  Saltonstall,  and  others, 
whose  names  still  shed  a  mild  light  over  the  clouds  of  revo- 
lution that  darkened  the  sunset  of  the  most  graceful,  yet  err- 
ing, of  all  the  monarchs  that  have  ever  sat  upon  the  throne 
of  England.  Men  they  were,  who  may  well  be  said  to  have 
been  as  free  from  the  incendiary  spirit  that  sought  to  unsettle 
the  old  order  of  the  British  constitution,  as  their  souls  were 
abhorrent  of  the  oppressive  acts  of  the  Court  of  High  Com- 
mission.    One  of  them,  the  muse  of  Gray  has  named  as  the 

*  As  the  validity  of  the  patent  granted  by  the  Earl  of  Warwick  t«  Lord  Say 
and  Seal  and  his  associates,  seems  never  to  have  been  called  in  question,  it  is  rea- 
sonable to  infer  that  he  was  vested  with  full  power  to  grant  such  a  patent. 


[1634.]  APPLICATIOlSr  DENIED.  21 

poet's  ideal  of  the  patriot ;  and  another,  even  Milton,  who 
condescended  to  flatter  no  one,  could  not  forbear  to  write, 
"with  honor  may  I  name  him,  the  Lord  Brooke."  Such 
were  the  original  grantees  of  the  soil  now  known — may  it 
ever  be ! — as  Connecticut.  Such  were  the  illustrious  men, 
who  looked  to  the  seclusion  of  her  shades  for  a  retreat  for 
themselves  and  their  friends  from  the  grasp  of  a  too  stringent 
political  and  ecclesiastical  domination.  But,  before  the  new 
proprietors  could  find  time  to  take  possession  of  their  pur- 
chase, it  was  pre-occupied,  as  we  have  seen,  by  the  Dutch 
and  the  fur  traders  from  New  Plymouth. 

By  this  time,  such  numbers  had  come  over  from  Eng- 
land, and  planted  themselves  in  the  vicinity  of  Boston, 
that  the  people  at  Watertown,  Dorchester,  and  Newtown, 
(Cambridge,)  began  to  find  themselves  crowded  into  such 
close  neighborhoods,  that  they  had  neither  land  enough 
fit  for  culture,  nor  pastures  for  their  cattle.*  Especially 
they  were  in  want  of  meadow  lands.  They  began  to  cast 
about  them  for  a  more  ample  domain ;  and,  from  the  rumors 
that  reached  them  from  time  to  time  of  the  rich  intervals 
that  lay  on  either  bank  of  the  Connecticut,  described  in 
such  glowing  terms  by  all  who  brought  tidings  of  their  lux- 
uriance, what  meadows  so  likely  to  make  glad  their  flocks 
and  herds,  and  what  fields  promised  to  yield  a  more  grateful 
recompense  to  the  toil  of  the  planter?  They  dwelt  upon 
these  pictures  until  they  could  no  longer  banish  them  from 
their  minds.  They  hesitated,  they  debated  with  one  another, 
whether  they  should  a  second  time  face  the  exposures  that 
must  meet  them  in  a  wilderness.  But  the  motives  for  a 
removal  were  too  strong  to  be  resisted,  and,  besides,  as  their 
history  has  since  proved,  they  were  strangers  to  fear.  They 
resolved  to  go.  But  would  they  be  allowed  to  go  ?  At  first, 
the  General  Court  of  Massachusetts  consented  to  it ;  yet, 
when  it  was  made  known  that  these  adventurers  proposed  to 
plant  a  new  colony  upon  the  Connecticut  river,  their  enter- 
prise was  stoutly  opposed.     In  September,  when  the  court 

*  Trumbullj  vol.  i.  p.  58. 


22  HISTORY  OF   CONNECTICUT. 

again  met,  the  matter  gave  rise  to  a  hot  debate.  The 
Houses  were  divided.*  There  appeared  in  the  field  two 
champions  of  no  ordinary  character.  In  1630,  the  Rev. 
Thomas  Hooker,  for  some  time  a  minister  of  the  Established 
Church  at  Chelmsford,  in  the  county  of  Essex,  "  was  silenced 
for  non-conformity."  Forty-seven  conforming  clergymen 
presented  a  petition  in  his  behalf  to  the  Bishop  of  London, 
wherein  they  vouched  for  the  soundness  of  his  doctrines  and 
the  purity  of  his  life.  But  their  efforts  proved  unavailing, 
and  to  save  himself  from  the  severities  likely  to  follow  his 
recusancy,  he  fled  to  Holland.  As,  in  later  days,  Boling- 
broke  and  Chesterfield  attended  upon  the  preaching  of 
Whitefield,  and  Montague  and  Mackintosh  upon  that  of 
Robert  Hall,  so  did  the  Earl  of  Warwick,  and  other  men  of 
note,  often  go  many  miles  to  yield  themselves  up  to  the  fas- 
cinations of  Hooker's  eloquence.  It  is  not  to  be  wondered 
at,  that  the  whole  body  of  his  parishioners,  from  whom  he 
had  been  so  suddenly  torn,  felt  the  keenest  anguish  at  the 
separation,  and  that  a  large  proportion  of  them,  with  the  ex- 
pectation that  their  pastor  would  follow  them,  embarked 
soon  after  for  America.  Many  personal  friends  and  ad- 
mirers of  his  genius,  who  had  never  been  connected  with 
him  by  so  delicate  a  tie,  were  of  the  same  party.  A  few 
came  over  at  first,  and  commenced  a  plantation  at  Wey- 
mouth. Afterwards,  a  larger  number  arrived  in  the  year 
1632,  and,  with  the  former,  all  established  themselves  at 
Newtown.  At  their  earnest  solicitation,  to  come  over  and 
place  himself  at  their  head.  Hooker  finally  sailed  for  America, 
with  Samuel  Stone,  his  assistant,  and  arrived  in  Massachu- 
setts on  the  4th  of  September,  1633.  He  had  been  in  Mas- 
sachusetts, therefore,  only  a  year,  when  this  interesting  ques- 
tion, of  the  propriety  of  allowing  the  petitioners  to  found  a 
new  colony,  came  up  for  a  second  discussion.  Hooker,  who 
had  already  made  up  his  mind  to  be  of  the  emigrating  party 
should  the  petition  be  granted,  advocated  the  cause  of  the 
people.     Most  of  the  other  ministers,  at  the  head  of  whom 

«  Winthrop,  (Savage's  Ed.,)  i.  p.  168. 


[1634.]        DEBATE   BETWEEN  HOOKER  AISTD   COTTOlSr.  23 

was  the  famous  John  Cotton,  strongly  opposed  the  project. 
Hooker  argued  their  want  of  room  in  which  to  expand 
themselves.  It  was  a  vital  error,  he  said,  that  so  many 
towns  should  be  crowded  into  so  small  a  space.  They  had 
neither  land  to  till  nor  for  pasturage.  The  people  were 
poor.  They  were  unable,  so  long  as  they  remained  as  they 
were,  to  support  their  own  ministers,  much  less  to  give  any 
thing  in  aid  of  others,  who  should  afterwards  come  over 
from  England  in  a  destitute  condition.  He  set  eloquently 
before  them  the  advantages  of  the  country  whither  it  was 
proposed  to  remove ;  the  importance  of  the  river,  in  a  mili- 
tary and  political  point  of  view ;  the  close  neighborhood  of 
the  Dutch  at  Manhattan ;  the  fact,  that  they  had  already  a 
trading  house  in  the  richest  part  of  the  country ;  and  the 
urgent  need  there  was  that  immediate  possession  should  be 
secured.*  We  may  well  believe,  too,  that  he  did  not  omit 
to  set  forth  in  bright  colors,  the  faciUties  presented  by  a  large 
and  navigable  stream  for  commerce ;  the  rich  furs  supplied 
by  that  stream  and  its  many  tributaries,  in  its  flow  of  hun- 
dreds of  miles  through  a  wild  region,  accessible,  indeed, 
through  the  medium  of  savages,  but  long  to  remain  unex- 
plored by  civilized  men. 

On  the  other  hand,  Cotton,  the  most  learned  and  per- 
suasive of  the  clergy,  urged  the  weakness  of  Massachu- 
setts ;  that  its  principal  poverty  was  a  poverty  of  men,  to 
subdue  and  cultivate  a  wilderness  large  enough  to  support 
many  times  their  number,  and  to  make  a  successful  stand 
against  the  tribes  of  savages  that  lurked  in  its  solitudes ; 
that  those  who  had  sought  to  leave  the  colony  in  this 
defenseless  state,  had  taken  a  solemn  oath  to  promote  the 
interests  of  the  Massachusetts,  and  that  they  would  violate 
their  consciences,  were  they  to  desert  the  commonwealth  in 
its  infancy,  and  while  it  might  well  be  said  to  be  struggling 
for  existence.  Finally,  let  the  case  be  as  it  might  with  those 
who  remained,  those  who  should  go  would  be  exposed  to  the 
horrors  of  war,  both  with  the  Dutch  and  Indians ;   that  it 

*  Savage's  Winthrop,  vol.  i.  p.  167 ;  Trumbull,  vol.  i.  p.  58. 


24  HISTOEY   OF   COXXECTICUT. 

would  be  in  a  measure  a  suicidal  act,  and  that  it  was  the 
part  of  benevolence,  rather  than  of  tyranny,  that  the  General 
Court  should  interpose  and  prevent  a  calamity  so  terrible. 

The  whole  colony  was  thrown  into  a  state  of  intense  ex- 
citement by  this  discussion.  Hooker's  powerful  eloquence, 
poured,  as  it  was,  into  the  popular  current,  carried  along 
with  it,  as  might  have  been  expected,  a  majority  of  the  rep- 
resentatives. The  vote  of  the  assistants  was  against  the 
application,  and  so,  as  a  matter  of  course,  it  was  lost.*  In 
looking  back  upon  this  debate,  in  which  those  who  took  a 
part  and  felt  an  interest  have  all  been  dead  for  nearly  two 
centuries,  and  in  looking  over  those  vast  regions,  washed  by 
the  great  lakes,  the  Pacific,  and  the  gulf  of  Mexico,  divided 
by  magnificent  rivers — ^regions  teeming  now  with  the  pos- 
terity, as  well  of  those  who  advocated,  as  of  those  who  op- 
posed an  emigration  to  the  valley  of  the  Connecticut — the 
large  views  and  noble  liberality  of  Hooker,  exhibited  on  that 
occasion,  assume  the  dignity  of  a  sublime  prophecy,  as  if  he 
must  have  seen  in  his  mind's  eye  the  millions  that  were  one 
day  to  inhabit  them. 

The  fate  of  the  application  in  the  General  Court  gave  a 
temporary  check  to  the  plans  of  Hooker  and  his  friends ;  but 
it  was  far  from  being  satisfactory  to  the  petitioners,  and  some 
there  were  who  secretly  set  it  at  defiance,  and  resolved  to 
remove  at  all  hazards.  A  number  of  the  inhabitants  of 
Watertown,  during  the  fall  of  the  same  year,  set  out  for  the 
interdicted  country ;  and,  arriving  in  season  to  construct  tem- 
porary houses  in  which  to  pass  the  winter,!  made,  it  is  be- 
lieved, at  Pyquaug,  (Wethersfield,)  the  first  settlement  on  the 
Connecticut  river. 

In  May  of  the  following  year,  the  old  application  of  Hooker 
and  his  friends  was  renewed,  and  leave  to  remove  reluctantly 
granted  by  the  General  Court,  with  the  proviso,  that  those 
who  emigrated  should  still  "  continue  under  the  jurisdiction 
of  Massachusetts."  J 

*  Savage's  Winthrop,  i.  p.  168.  t  Trumbull,  vol.  i.  p.  59. 

i  Savage's  Winthrop,  vol.  i.  p.  191. 


[1635.]  HARTFORD   SETTLED.  25 

During  the  summer  of  the  same  year,  several  of  the  people 
belonging  to  the  congregation  of  the  Rev.  Mr.  Wareham,  of 
Dorchester,  removed  to  a  point  on  the  river  near  the  Ply- 
mouth trading  house,  and,  much  to  the  alarm  of  Holmes  and 
those  whom  he  represented,  prepared  to  lay  the  foundations  of 
the  town  of  Windsor.*  The  whole  of  that  season,  the  Water- 
town  settlers,  in  little  parties  of  a  few  families,  continued  to 
make  additions  to  the  gallant  little  company  of  pioneers  at 
Wethersfield.  The  planters  at  Newtown  were  getting  ready, 
also,  to  remove  to  Hartford  the  next  spring.  Thus  passed 
the  eventful  summer  of  1635,  in  bustling  preparation,  until,  in 
the  middle  of  October,  when  the  trees  were  half  stripped  of 
their  leaves,  and  the  chestnuts  and  acorns  were  dropping 
from  the  boughs  in  the  lovely  autumn  weather,  sixty  persons, 
among  whom  were  women  and  little  children,  set  out  on 
their  tedious  march  to  the  new  settlements.  They  took 
along  with  them  such  movable  property  as  they  could,  in- 
cluding their  horses,  cattle,  and  swine.  A  slow,  wearisome 
journey  they  made  of  it.  They  were  delayed  by  so  many 
obstacles,  that  frosts  and  snows  were  pressing  hard  upon  them 
before  they  reached  the  eastern  bank  of  the  Connecticut. 
And  so  much  time  was  spent  in  making  rafts,  and  crossing 
the  river  with  their  cattle,  that  they  were  not  ready  for  win- 
ter when  it  came.     Most  of  them  settled  in  Hartford. 

In  the  fall  of  the  same  year,  came  over  to  America  John 
Winthrop,  the  younger,  a  commissioned  agent  of  Viscount 
Say  and  Seal,  and  the  other  noblemen,  knights,  and  gentle- 
men, named  in  the  original  patent  of  the  colony,f  with  in- 
structions to  repair  immediately  to  the  mouth  of  the  Connec- 
ticut river  with  fifty  men,  and  commence  the  building  of  a 
strong  fortification,  and  houses  as  well  for  the  garrison  as  for 
gentlemen,  expected  to  arrive  in  the  course  of  the  next  year. 
The  fort  was  to  be  built  upon  a  very  large  scale,  to  embrace 
within  its  inclosure  "houses  suitable  for  the  reception  of 
men  of  quality,"  to  be  erected  as  soon  as  practicable.     Win- 

*  Savage's  Wintlirop,  i.  p.  198 ;  Trumbull,  vol.  i.  p.  60. 
t  lb.  vol.  i.  pp.  202,  203. 


26  HISTORY  OF  CONNECTICUT. 

throp  was  directed  to  take  possession  of  a  suitable  tract 
of  land,  near  the  fort,  containing  from  a  thousand  to  fifteen 
hundred  acres,  that  was  to  be  reserved  for  the  use  of  the  for- 
tification. He  was  constituted  by  this  commission,  "  Gov- 
ernor of  the  river  Connecticut,"  for  the  space  of  a  year  after 
his  arrival  there. 

When  Governor  Winthrop  arrived  in  Massachusetts,  he 
heard  rumors  that  the  Dutch  were  preparing  to  anticipate 
him  in  the  erection  of  a  fort  at  the  place  named  in  his  com- 
mission. He  waited  only  to  collect  about  twenty  men,  and 
sent  them  by  sea  to  take  possession  of  the  mouth  of  the  river, 
and  to  erect  embankments,  and  to  plant  their  cannon  there 
with  all  dispatch.  They  had  much  need  of  haste ;  for, 
scarcely  had  they  begun  to  make  themselves  ready  for  de- 
fence, when  a  Dutch  sail  from  Manhattan  was  seen  making 
for  the  mouth  of  the  river.  The  current  of  the  Connecticut, 
at  this  place,  pressed  close  upon  the  western  bank ;  and  here, 
upon  a  bluff  that  juts  out  boldly  into  the  deep  water,  almost 
upon  the  very  line  where  the  river  loses  itself  in  the  sea, 
Winthrop's  men  had  hastily  thrown  up  their  embankments 
and  mounted  their  guns.  When  the  Dutch  had  approached 
near  enough  to  the  land  to  see  the  new  fortress,  with  the 
English  colors  floating  above  it,  they  withdrew  without  any 
show  of  resistance,  leaving  the  governor's  forces  in  quiet 
possession  of  the  key  to  the  treasures  of  a  country  that  had 
for  some  time  tempted  their  cupidity,  but  was  henceforth  to 
be  forever  locked  against  them. 

I  have  already  alluded  to  the  severity  of  that  memorable 
winter.  The  garrison  at  Saybrook  suffered  severely ;  but  it 
was  reserved  to  the  three  settlements  further  up  the  valley 
to  encounter  all  the  horrors  of  a  winter  in  the  wilderness. 

By  the  middle  of  November,  the  river  was  frozen  com- 
pletely over.  The  personal  effects  of  the  settlers,  such  as 
they  could  not  well  carry  with  them  in  their  journey  through 
the  woods,  had  been  forwarded  by  sea ;  but  the  vessels  that 
bore  this  precious  lading,  of  beds,  clothing,  and  provisions, 
for  dehcate  women  and  little  children,  were  either  wrecked 


[1635.]  FAMINE   ON  THE   CONNECTICUT.  27 

upon  that  coast,  even  in  this  age  of  improved  navigation,  so 
fatal  to  mariners,  or  forced  to  put  back  again  into  Boston 
harbor.  By  the  first  of  December,  the  pangs  of  famine  began 
to  be  added  to  the  numbing  influences  of  cold.  With  a  fru- 
gal hand,  the  father  of  the  household  measured  out  the  stinted 
dole  of  bread  and  meat  to  his  offspring,  until  both  bread  and 
meat  v^^ere  gone.  Corn  vi^as  bought,  in  small  quantities,  of  the 
Indians ;  but  these  simple-minded  creatures,  with  their  usual 
improvidence,  had  but  too  little  to  spare.  Finally,  in  small 
parties,  the  inhabitants  of  the  three  settlements,  regardless 
of  all  other  enemies,  fled,  pallid  with  fear,  from  the  agonies 
of  starvation.  Some  crossed  the  river  upon  the  ice,  and, 
committing  themselves  to  the  pathless  snows,  waded  back  to 
the  Massachusetts.*  Seventy  persons  were  induced  to  go 
down  to  the  fort  at  Saybrook,  with  the  hope  of  meeting  the 
vessels  that  should  have  brought  their  provisions  from  Boston. 
But  they  looked  in  vain  for  the  frail  ships,  that  had  proved 
unable  to  withstand  the  rocks  and  shoals  whither  the  blasts 
that  sweep  the  New  England  coast  at  that  tempestuous  sea- 
son of  the  year  had  driven  them.  They  went  aboard  a 
small  vessel  of  sixty  tons  burden,  which  they  found  twenty 
miles  above  the  fort,  hoping  to  be  able  to  sail  in  her  to  Mas- 
sachusetts. But  they  saw  that  she  was  fast  anchored  in 
the  ice,  and  it  was  two  days  before  they  could  get  her  under 
way.  With  much  difficulty,  they  reached  Boston,  after  a 
dangerous  voyage  of  many  days.  But  of  the  few  that  re- 
mained, the  condition  was  still  worse.  When  they  had  spent 
their  small  stock  of  food,  and  could  get  no  more  from  the 
Indians,  the  more  hardy  of  them  betook  themselves  to  the 
woods,  to  hunt  the  bear  and  the  deer ;  and,  when  this  resource 
failed  them,  they  dug  up  acorns  from  beneath  the  snow,  and 
ground-nuts  from  the  banks  of  the  streams.  Many  of  their 
cattle  died,  and  those  that  survived,  like  their  owners,  were 
sickly  and  drooping.  Add  to  all  this  bodily  suffering,  the 
consciousness  of  utter  helplessness.  They  were  alone.  The 
Indians,  though  kind  to  them,  were  kind  only  from  motives 

*  Savage's  Winthrop,  i.  207. 


28,  niSTOEY   OF   CONNECTICUT. 

of  interest  or  fear.  How  long  would  they  remain  so,  was  a 
question  asked  doubtingly,  and  answered  by  an  appi'ehensive 
glance  of  the  eye.  The  vast  forest,  a  familiar  home  to  the  sav- 
age, was  to  them  frowning  and  bewildering  Besides,  there 
was  something  terrific  in  the  consciousness,  that  the  very 
forces  of  nature,  but  a  few  weeks  before  so  genial  and 
smiling,  were  banded  together  to  crush  them.  Still,  they 
hoped  and  struggled  on.  In  their  darkest  hours,  they  never 
forgot  the  promise,  that  seed-time  and  harvest  shall  not  fail. 

At  last,  the  winds  began  to  lull,  the  snow  crumbled  and 
slowly  melted  away,  and  a  few  scattered  birds  began  to  give 
token  that  April  and  the  bursting  buds  were  close  at  hand. 

The  Connecticut  settlements  were  nominally  under  the 
rule  of  the  mother  country  ;  but  they  really,  from  the  first, 
governed  themselves.  For  three  or  four  years,  their  courts 
consisted  of  magistrates,  to  a  number  not  exceeding  six,  and 
from  nine  to  twelve  committee  men,  each  town  sending  an 
equal  number.  On  the  14th  of  January,  1638-9,  it  was  or- 
dered that,  in  future,  there  should  be  two  general  courts  in  each 
year,  viz. :  on  the  first  Thursdays  of  April  and  September — 
the  first  to  be  called  a  court  of  election,  on  which  occasion 
seven  magistrates  should  be  chosen,  the  governor  to  be  elected 
from  among  them.  It  was  further  ordered,  that  the  towns  of 
Hartford,  Wethersfield,  and  Windsor,  should  be  entitled  to 
four  deputies  each ;  and  that  the  number  to  be  elected  in  such 
towns  as  might  subsequently  be  admitted  to  the  jurisdiction, 
should  be  determined  upon  according  to  their  population.* 
The  special  or  particular  courts,  holden  in  the  interim,  were 
variously  constituted — sometimes  a  jury  being  substituted  for 
the  deputies— three  or  more  of  the  magistrates  being  always 
present — the  governor,  deputy  governor,  or  a  moderator,  pre- 
siding, f  The  general  courts  were  invested  with  all  the  legisla- 
tive and  judicial  functions  of  the  colony,  including  the  power  of 

*  Notwithstanding  these  provisions  of  the  glorious  constitution,  (which  was 
adopted  at  the  preceding  date,)  the  "  committees"  continued  to  attend  the  court 
until  April,  1640,  when  "  deputies"  were  substituted. 

+  Vide  J.  Hammond  Trumbull's  "  Colonial  Records." 


[1636.]  HOOKER  AND  HIS  COMPANY.  29 

making  treaties,  a  power  much  exercised  in  alliances  with 
the  Indians. 

On  the  26th  of  April,  1636,  the  first  court  was  held  in  the 
colony.  It  met  at  Newtown  (soon  after  named  Hartford) 
Roger  Ludlow,  Esq.,  of  whose  liberal  views  and  far-sighted 
pohcy,  as  a  statesman,  it  will  be  our  pleasure  by  and  by  to 
treat,  was  a  member.  At  this  court,  it  was  ordered,  among 
other  excellent  sumptuary  regulations,  that  the  inhabitants 
should  not  sell  arms  and  ammunition  to  the  Indians. 

With  the  first  springing  of  the  green  grass,  and  the  unfold- 
ing of  the  leaves,  so  that  their  cattle  could  subsist  in  the 
woods,  those  who  fled  from  the  plantations  in  the  winter,  now 
hastened  to  return.  Others  came  with  them,  and  others  still 
followed  them,  in  little  groups,  through  the  whole  month  of 
May. 

About  the  beginning  of  June,  the  first  soft,  warm  month  of 
the  New  England  year,  Mr.  Hooker,  with  his  assistant,  Mr. 
Stone,  and  followed  by  about  one  hundred  men,  women, 
and  children,  set  out  upon  the  long-contemplated  journey. 
Over  mountains,  through  swamps,  across  rivers,  fording,  or 
upon  rafts,  with  the  compass  to  point  out  their  irregular  way, 
slowly  they  moved  westward  ;  now  in  the  open  spaces  of  the 
forest,  where  the  sun  looked  in  ;  now  under  the  shades  of  the 
old  trees;  now  struggling  through  the  entanglement  of  bushes 
and  vines — driving  their  flocks  and  herds  before  them — the 
strong  supporting  the  weak,  the  old  caring  for  the  young, 
with  hearts  cheerful  as  the  month,  slowly  they  moved  on. 
Mrs.  Hooker  was  ill,  and  was  borne  gently  upon  a  litter.* 
A  stately,  well-ordered  journey  it  was,  for  gentlemen  of  for- 
tune and  rank  were  of  the  company,  and  ladies  who  had 
been  delicately  bred,  and  who  had  known  little  of  toil  or 
hardship  until  now.  But  they  endured  it  with  the  sweet 
alacrity  that  belongs  alone  to  woman,  high-toned  and  gentle, 
when  summoned,  by  a  voice  whose  call  can  not  be  resisted, 
to  lay  aside  the  trappings  of  ease,  and  to  step  from  a  position 
that  she  once  adorned,  to  a  level  that  her  presence  ennobles , 

*  Winthrop,  i.  223  ;  Trumbull,  i.  64,  65. 


30  HISTORY   OF   CONiN-ECTICUT. 

The  howl  of  the  wolf,  his  stealthy  step  among  the  rustling 
leaves,  the  sighing  of  the  pines,  the  roar  of  the  mountain  tor- 
rent, losing  itself  in  echoes  sent  back  from  rock  and  hill,  the 
smoking  ruins  of  the  Indian  council  fire — all  forcing  upon  the 
mind  the  oppressive  sense  of  solitariness  and  danger,  the 
more  dreaded  because  unseen — all  these,  the  wife,  the  mother, 
the  daughter,  encountered,  with  a  calm  trust  that  they  should 
one  day  see  the  wilderness  blossom  as  the  rose. 

At  the  end  of  about  two  weeks,  they  reached  the  land 
almost  fabulous  to  them — so  long  had  hope  and  fancy  been 
shaping  to  their  minds  pictures  of  an  ideal  loveliness — the 
valley  of  the  Connecticut.  It  lay  at  their  feet,  beneath  the 
shadow  of  the  low-browed  hills,  that  tossed  the  foliage  of 
their  trees  in  billows,  heaving  for  miles  away  to  the  east  and 
west,  as  the  breath  of  June  touched  them  with  life.  It  lay, 
holding  its  silvery  river  in  its  embrace,  like  a  strong  bow 
half  bent  in  the  hands  of  the  swarthy  hunter,  who  still  called 
himself  lord  of  its  rich  acres. 

Let  us,  in  imagination,  stand  by  the  side  of  those  wander- 
ers, now  in  sight  of  a  resting-place,  and  look  with  them  on 
their  new  home.  What  glorious  oaks  pierce  yonder  hill- 
sides with  their  rugged  roots,  that,  with  the  lapse  of  centuries, 
seem  never  to  grow  old.  What  clumps  of  tulip-trees,  each 
shooting  high  into  the  air  its  cluster  of  quaint-fashioned 
leaves  and  yellow  flowers.  More  than  one  of  those  smooth 
trunks  might  be  hollowed  to  form  as  large  a  canoe  as  any  in 
sight,  that  ripples  over  the  eddies  of  the  river,  or  is  tied  by  its 
cord  to  the  trees  that  grow  by  the  cove.  In  the  thatch  grass 
at  your  feet,  some  Indian  fishermen,  with  hempen  nets  or 
hooks  of  bone,  are  dragging  ashore  a  score  or  two  of  yel- 
low salmon ;  and  near  by,  at  the  entrance  of  that  wigwam, 
where  the  smoke  rises  so  faintly,  a  few  squaws  are  kindling 
a  fire  of  drift  wood  to  broil  a  meal  for  their  lazy  lords, 
that  they  will  eat  in  approving  silence.  There  are  some 
fields  of  hemp  growing ;  and  further  on  is  a  clearing  in  the 
woods,  though  here  and  there  a  scattered  tree  with  its  rouffh 
bark  has  escaped  the  fire  that  felled  its  companions,  where 


THE    FUTURE.  31 

you  may  see  maize,  and  beans,  and  squashes,  struggling  with 
the  grass  that  taxes  the  strength  of  the  squaws  to  keep  it 
down.  Who  ever  saw  such  patriarchal  elms,  with  such 
gracefully  spreading  branches,  that  droop  till  they  dip  their 
leaves  in  the  brim  of  the  river  ?  At  intervals,  up  and  down 
the  valley,  are  the  log  huts  erected  by  their  friends  who  pre- 
ceded them,  that  rest  in  the  eye  of  these  tired  travelers  more 
lovingly  than  the  pleasant  manor  houses  and  cottages  that 
they  have  left  behind  them.  Here  these  men  shall  found  a 
city,  the  capital  of  a  State  that  shall  not  be  unknown  to 
fame,  that  shall  extend  itself  under  the  influences  of  mild 
laws,  equally  administered,  contending  bravely  for  its  rights, 
sometimes  for  its  existence,  on  fields  of  battle,  against  wild 
savages,  against  the  armies  of  France ;  and  she  confesses 
with  tears,  yet  not  with  shame,  that  the  most  bloody  conflict, 
in  the  course  of  two  centuries,  to  be  recorded  by  her  histo- 
rian, was  with  the  children  of  the  country  from  which  her 
founders  fled,  contending  for  principles  planted,  by  Hooker 
and  such  as  he,  ineradicably  in  the  soil. 


CHAPTER  II. 

CONNECTICUT  A  WIIDEENESS.    THE  PEQITOT  WAE  AND  ITS  CAUSES. 

The  difficulties  that  were  to  be  encountered  by  the  Eng- 
lish in  making  settlements  in  Connecticut,  can  hardly  be 
estimated  by  us  who  now  occupy  the  same  territory.  We 
have  our  sea-ports,  our  cities,  our  villages,  swarming  with  a 
thriving  population.  The  steam  engine  is  hurrying  us  from 
one  great  business  centre  to  another  with  astonishing  velocity, 
dragging  in  its  train  the  products  of  our  varied  industry,  and 
bringing  back  those  of  all  nations  in  return.  We  have  our 
banks  and  other  corporations,  that  represent  the  accumulated 
earnings  both  of  the  dead  and  living ;  our  city  mansions,  our 
hospitable  country  houses,  surrounded  by  their  well-tilled 
acres,  where  the  ploughshare,  as  it  glides  along,  is  scarcely 
obstructed  by  the  roots  of  the  forest  trees,  that  once  lay 
coiled  like  serpents  beneath  the  sod. 

Forest  trees,  standing  alone,  or  in  the  scattered  patches 
of  our  woodlands,  we  have  still  remaining,  though  constantly 
decreasing  in  number  and  size,  and  gradually  withdrawing 
from  our  habitations  to  the  tops  of  mountains  or  the  beds 
of  streams,  where  yet  they  may  be  safe  for  a  little  while,  until 
the  necessities  of  some  newly-built  fuyiace  or  manufactory 
shall  follow  them  even  there. 

How  different  is  the  Connecticut  of  to-day  from  that  of  the 
first  half  of  the  seventeenth  century !  With  the  exception 
of  tlie  clearings  made  by  the  Indians,  by  burning  over  the 
bent  grass  and  dry  leaves  in  the  fall  or  spring,  for  the  pur- 
l)Oses  of  hunting  or  of  their  meagre  tillage,  the  whole  country 
was  covered  with  primitive  trees.  The  oak,  the  chestnut, 
the  pine  in  all  its  varieties,  the  walnut,  the  cedar,  the  wild 
cherry,  the  maple, — these,  with  other  sturdy  trees  that  thrive 
in  high  or  temperate  latitudes,  here  shot  up  and  grew  luxuri- 
antly, extending  over  the  rough  country  and  the  smooth  for 


GAME   m  THE  FOREST.  33 

hundreds  of  miles, — trees  of  no  puny  growth,  for  they  fed  on 
the  decayed  trunks  of  other  trees,  their  predecessors,  and  on 
the  leaves  that  annually  fell  and  slowly  mouldered  above 
their  roots.  Every  year  their  season  of  growth  was  brief, 
for  then,  as  now,  summer  came  late,  and  did  not  tarry  long ; 
yet  they  grew  with  wonderful  rapidity,  usurping  to  them- 
selves all  the  richness  of  the  soil.  Many  of  them,  especially 
oaks,  pines,  and  elms,  attained  a  vast  size,  for  they  stood  in 
such  close  neighborhood  that  their  branches  intertwined  and 
screened  each  other  from  the  ice  and  snows  that  loaded  them, 
and  the  winds  that  buffeted  them  in  vain.  Not  broken,  as 
our  thin  woods  are  in  modern  times,  from  exposure  to  the 
fierceness  of  the  elements,  they  kept  their  vigor  and  grew 
for  many  ages.  They  sheltered  a  great  variety  of  wild 
animals — for  game,  the  moose,  the  deer,  the  bear ;  along  the 
streams,  the  otter,  the  beaver,  and  many  other  fur- producing 
animals,  that  requited  well  the  labors  of  the  trapper.  There 
were  not  a  few  of  the  destructive  order.  Wolves,  in  thous- 
ands, infested  the  new  settlements.  They  killed  the  cattle, 
they  stole  and  carried  off  the  sheep,  and  did  what  they  could 
by  their  unearthly  bowlings  at  night,  to  add  to  the  horrors 
that  thickened  on  the  skirts  of  the  wilderness.  It  will  be  a 
part  of  our  task  to  call  to  the  reader's  mind  the  many  stat- 
utes that  our  ancestors  passed  to  regulate  those  unruly  citi- 
zens— how  they  kept  watch  and  ward  to  defend  against 
them — how  they  set  bounties  upon  the  heads  and  ears  of 
those  who  offended  by  coming  within  a  given  number  of 
miles  of  their  settlements,  and  how  these  depredators  proved, 
after  all,  incorrigible,  and  with  their  fellow  malefactors,  the 
bears  and  catamounts,  could  only  be  brought  into  subjection 
by  totally  exterminating  the  whole  race,  the  innocent  with 
the  guilty.  Wild-fowl  also  abounded  in  the  woods.  Tur- 
keys, more  swift -footed  than  the  Indian  runners  themselves, 
and  of  a  size  almost  incredible,  were  nearly  as  numerous  as 
the  fallen  logs  beneath  which  they  hatched  their  young. 
Pigeons  innumerable  might  be  seen  on  the  wing  constantly 
in  the  spring  and  autumn  days,  or  startled  in  the  midsummer 


84  HISTORY   OF  CONNECTICUT. 

from  the  thicket  where  they  had  built  their  nests.  In  the 
lakes  and  rivers  were  plenty  of  wild  geese,  and  the  whole 
duck  family  in  ail  its  varieties.*  All  the  little  creeks  and 
inlets  of  Long  Island  sound,  sent  ashore  their  treasures  of 
lobsters,  oysters,  and  other  shellfish  of  all  sorts,  that  how 
supply  the  tables  of  the  inhabitants,  as  well  of  those  who 
dwell  inland,  as  of  those  who  inhabit  the  sea-shore. 

Within  the  limits  of  Connecticut,  as  its  boundaries  are  now 
fixed,  were  probably  from  twelve  to  fifteen  thousandf  Indians, 
broken  into  many  clans  or  tribes,  speaking  different  dialects, 
that  had  a  common  basis,  so  that  the  individuals  belonging 
to  one  tribe  could  understand  the  words  spoken  by  those  of 
another.  All  their  gestures,  too,  and  ordinary  modes  of  life — 
their  rules  of  war  and  of  peace,  their  traditionary  laws,  their 
gods,  their  heaven  and  hell,  had  a  common  origin.  They 
were  quite  unequally  distributed  in  different  parts  of  the  com- 
monwealth. Those  who  lived  on  either  bank  of  the  Con- 
necticut, and  were  hence  called  river  Indians,  were  nearly 
all  within  the  old  limits  of  Windsor,  Hartford,  Wethers- 
field,  and  Middletown.  There  were  ten  sovereignties  of 
them  in  Windsor  alone,  who  could  muster,  it  was  said,  an 
aggregate  of  two  thousand  bowmen.  Hartford  swarmed 
with  them.  We  shall  name  only  a  few  of  the  tribes  now, 
reserving  a  more  particular  notice  of  them  when  we  come 
to  treat  of  the  places  where  they  lived,  as  each,  in  its  order 
of  time,  v/e  gather  the  new  plantations  or  towns  into  the  con- 
stantly enlarging  circle  reclaimed  by  our  fathers  from  the 
solitudes  of  nature. 

We  must  not  omit,  however,  to  make  allusion  to  the  In- 
dians called  Pequots  and  Mohegans,  who  occupied  a  large 
tract  of  country,  about  thirty  miles  square,  extending  from 

*  Hoyt's  Indian  Wars. 

t  The  number  has  been  variously  estimated  by  different  historians,  some  placing 
it  as  high  as  twenty  thousand,  while  Mr.  Deforest,  in  his  "  History  of  the  Con- 
necticut Indians,"  estimates  the  number  at  from  six  to  seven  thousand  only.  A 
careful  investigation  of  all  the  accessible  authorities,  leads  us  to  the  conclusion 
that  the  number  stated  in  our  text  can  not  be  far  from  the  truth. 


SASSACUS.  35 

the  Connecticut  river,  on  the  west,  to  the  Narragansett  coun- 
try, on  the  east,  and  from  the  sea-coast,  on  the  south,  to  the 
northern  boundary  Hne  of  the  colony — making  up  the  whole 
of  the  counties  of  New  London  and  Windham,  with  a  large 
part  of  Tolland  county.  Though  usually  treated  of  by  histo- 
rians as  separate  tribes,  yet  they  do  not  appear  to  have  been 
so,  except  that  Uncas,  the  Mohegan  chief,  who  was  too  am- 
bitious, himself,  to  favor  the  aspiring  views  of  Sassacus,  the 
head  sachem  of  the  Pequots,  thought  it  best,  from  motives 
of  policy,  to  take  the  part  of  the  English  settlers,  in  order 
that  he  might  find  in  them  an  ally  against  the  burdensome 
power  of  his  superior  chieftain.  Uncas  was  a  rebel  chief, 
who  was  glad  to  avail  himself  of  such  aid  as  he  could  find,  and 
the  more  powerful  the  better,  against  his  master.  Why  he  has 
received  the  laudations  of  so  many  writers,  it  is  not  easy  to  see, 
unless,  in  their  love  of  the  treason  that  helped  them  to  crush 
a  troublesome  enemy,  they  have  learned  also  to  cherish  the 
memory  of  the  traitor.  For  ourselves,  we  set  a  much  lower 
estimate  upon  the  character  of  this  Indian,  than  upon  that 
of  the  Pequot  chief,  who  fought  the  English  to  the  last  hour 
of  his  life,  and  scorned  to  ask  quarter  of  those  to  whom  he 
had  himself  denied  it.  As  the  event  proved,  Uncas  was 
doubtless  the  shrewder  politician  of  the  two ;  and  was  too 
cunning,  after  witnessing  the  prowess  of  his  new  allies,  ever 
to  think  of  deserting  them.  Uncas,  both  by  his  father's  and 
mother's  side,  was  descended  from  the  royal  Pequot  line,  and 
he  also  married  a  daughter  of  a  Pequot  chief;  so  that  he  is 
entitled  to  whatever  honor  can  be  derived  from  rejoicing 
over  the  downfall  of  the  family  and  the  nation  from  which  he 
sprung. 

Sassacus  was  the  most  intractable  and  proud  of  all  the 
New  England  Indians.  He  is  described  as  having  excelled 
all  the  other  men  of  his  tribe  in  courage  and  address  as  a 
warrior,  as  much  as  that  tribe  surpassed  all  the  neighboring 
ones  in  its  haughty  claims  to  dominion.  Sassacus  had 
twenty-six  sachems  under  him,  when  the  English  settlers 
first   came    to   the    Connecticut   river.     His   most   familiar 


36  HISTORY  OF  CONNECTICUT. 

haunts  were  in  the  present  towns  of  Groton  and  New  Lon- 
don. He  had  two  harbors,  one  at  the  mouth  of  the  Pequot 
river,  (now  called  the  Thames,)  and  the  other  at  the  mouth 
of  the  river  Mistick.  He  had  also  two  principal  forts.  The 
larger  one  occupied  the  summit  of  a  high  hill,  that  looks  off 
upon  the  indented  line  of  the  shore  and  the  quiet  waters  of 
that  part  of  the  Atlantic  that  is  shut  away  from  the  main  by 
the  low  sandy  barrier  of  Long  Island — a  little  archipelago, 
as  viewed  from  this  eminence,  containing  in  its  bosom  a 
cluster  of  islands  as  lovely  as  any  that  lie  in  the  embraces  of 
the  ocean.  Here,  in  such  rude  state  as  savages  know  how 
to  put  on,  lived  Sassacus,  keeping  watch  over  his  fishing- 
coast  and  hunting-grounds,  administering  justice  after  the 
rude  manner  of  his  ancestors,  punishing  rebels,  bringing 
home  the  scalps  of  conquered  chiefs,  and  sending  his  haughty 
messengers  for  hundreds  of  miles,  into  far  off  regions,  whose 
inhabitants  trembled  at  the  terrors  of  his  name.  In  the  ex- 
pressive language  of  those  who  feared  him,  he  was  "  all  one 
god."  Here,  by  the  copious  spring  that  still  bubbles  up  to  the 
lips  of  him  who  goes  thither  to  read  the  lost  memorials  of  a 
nation  now  extinct,  he  had  gathered  the  grim  trophies  of  his 
savage  grandeur ;  here,  were  his  treasures  of  wampum,  his 
armory  of  war  clubs,  and  bows,  and  arrows  pointed  with  bone 
or  flint. 

A  few  miles  to  the  eastward  of  this  fort,  and  having  a 
pleasant  lookout  upon  the  adjacent  country,  and  his  harbor  at 
the  mouth  of  the  river  Mistick,  was  the  other  fort  just  named. 

I  have  been  thus  minute  in  regard  to  this  sachem  and  his 
tribe,  because  their  fate  is  first  in  the  order  of  events  to  be 
set  forth  in  this  work.  But,  before  proceeding  to  the  details 
of  a  story  not  so  pleasant  to  dwell  upon  as  to  induce  us  to 
hasten  our  steps,  let  us  premise  a  few  words  in  reference  to 
the  personal  appearance,  character,  and  habits,  of  the  Con- 
necticut Indians. 

They  were  almost  without  exception  athletic,  well-developed 
men,  tall,  graceful  in  their  movements,  with  not  very  regular 
features,  high  cheek-bones,  thin  lips,  black  eyes,  and  coarse 


TEAITS  OF    THE    INDIANS.  37 

hair  of  the  same  color.  They  dressed  in  a  fantastic,  yet  very 
becoming  manner,  in  the  skins  of  wild  beasts,  the  warriors 
having  an  eye  to  the  picturesque  and  the  terrible,  seeking  to 
make  themselves  as  frightful  as  possible  when  they  went  forth 
to  make  war.  The  women  wore  petticoats  of  skins  about 
the  loins,  extending  below  the  knees.  The  chiefs  wore  belts 
of  wampum,  some  of  them  very  costly  and  beautiful,  and  of  a 
variety  of  colors.  When  dressed  for  a  war  council,  they 
were  decorated  with  great  care  and  magnificence. 

The  Indian  was  roving  and  untamable  in  his  disposition. 
He  set  a  high  value  upon  demeanor.  Possessed  of  the  most 
intense  curiosity,  he  habitually  hid  it  beneath  the  mask  of  a 
stony  indifference.  He  was  proud,  beyond  all  other  men,  both 
by  nature  and  education.  He  has  been  called  cowardly  in 
his  mode  of  warfare.*  But  when  it  is  recollected  how  puny 
were  his  offensive  weapons,  how  slight  those  of  defense,  how 
little  his  dress  protected  his  person,  and  how  deadly  were  the 
guns  of  the  English,  we  ought  not  to  form  hasty  conclusions 
adverse  to  his  valor.  The  Indians  were  not  wanting  in  intel- 
lectual endowments.  They  had  little  sympathy  with  external 
nature,  and  yet  they  were  from  necessity  keen  observers  of 
all  natural  phenomena.  They  had  a  rude,  wild  gift  of  elo- 
quence, highly  impassioned,  abounding  in  metaphors  some- 
times extravagant,  always  bold  and  striking.  In  all  their 
allusions  to  the  glory  of  their  ancestors,  and  the  places  where 
their  bones  had  been  laid,  they  spoke  with  a  delicate  sim- 
plicity, that  formed  a  striking  contrast  with  the  frigid  selfish- 
ness that  is  stamped  as  indelibly  upon  the  Indian  character  as 
it  is  written  legibly  in  his  face.  They  were  too  good  tacti- 
tians  to  be  trustworthy  as  friends.     As  enemies,  they  were 

*  From  the  frequent  taunts  made  by  the  Indians  to  the  inmates  of  the  fortifica- 
tion at  Saybrook,  we  may  infer  that  they  regarded  it  as  the  perfection  of  cow- 
ardice to  fight  from  behind  the  walls  of  a  fort.  "  Come  out  here,  and  fight  like 
men,"  was  their  summons  to  the  English  ;  yet,  no  sooner  was  the  call  complied 
with,  than  the  wily  savages  flew  to  the  thicket  for  shelter,  and  there,  skulking 
behind  trees,  or  beneath  the  tall  underbrush,  sent  forth  the  swift  messengers  of 
death  upon  their  enemies.  Self-protection  was  the  object  in  both  cases,  though 
different  means  were  used  to  attain  the  end. 


38  HISTORY  OF  CONNECTICUT. 

implacable,  and  seldom  suffered  the  embers  of  an  old  feud  to 
go  out  in  their  bosoms.  They  schooled  themselves  to  endure 
tortures,  the  most  excruciating  that  can  rack  the  human 
frame,  with  a  grim  composure  of  countenance,  or  smilingly- 
courted  still  keener  agonies  by  menacing  gestures,  scornful 
distortions  of  the  lip,  and  the  most  insulting  way  of  rolling 
the  eye-balls  in  the  presence  of  their  tormentors.  The  most 
complex  tortures  known  to  the  traditionary  code  of  the  Indian, 
called  forth  from  the  victim  no  confession  of  their  efficacy. 
Limb  after  limb  might  be  torn  from  him,  his  face  mutilated,  his 
tongue  plucked  out  by  the  roots,  his  body  scorched  in  the  hot 
breath  of  the  flames  that  wreathed  around  the  stake,  still,  like 
the  images  of  stone  that  embodied  his  rude  ideal  of  a  creating 
intelligence,  he  preserved  his  scornfulness  of  look,  until  his 
spirit  left  the  shriveled  body  for  such  a  heaven  as  the  tradi- 
tions of  his  people  had  promised  to  the  warrior  whose  brown 
cheek  had  never  paled  with  fear. 

The  male  Indians  did  little  manual  labor.  They  spent 
their  time  in  hunting,  fishing,  contriving  wars  and  executing 
them,  or,  when  leisure  was  allowed  for  indulgence,  in  a  dull 
round  of  animal  enjoyments.  They  had  no  regular  division 
of  time,  ate  no  regular  meals,  and  had  no  hours  set  apart  for 
social  enjoyment.  While  her  lord  lay  under  the  shade  of  a 
tree  within  sight  of  the  cornfield,  and  snored  away  the  hours 
of  a  summer  afternoon,  the  squaw  turned  up  the  sods,  and 
drew  the  dark,  rich  loam  around  the  maize ;  or,  not  far  off, 
in  the  mortar  that  had  been  worn  ages  before  in  some  earth- 
fast  rock,  her  stone  pestle  fell  in  regular  strokes  upon  th 
shining  kernels  that  she  had  raised  the  year  before,  and  laid 
carefully  aside,  to  furnish  the  requisite  supply  of  "samp," 
that  constituted  the  staple  of  the  Indian's  food.  As  might 
be  inferred  from  their  habits,  the  squaws  were  strong  ana 
hardy,  and  more  capable  of  enduring  fatigue  than  the  men, 
though  their  figures  were  not  so  slender  and  graceful.  Of 
household  furniture  they  had  little.  A  few  cooking  vessels 
of  wood  and  stone,  a  knife  made  of  shell  or  a  species  of  reed, 
made  up  nearly  the  whole  inventory.     They  had  stone  axes, 


INDIAN  ARTS   AND   MANUFACTURES.  39 

too,  and  chisels.  Their  most  delicate  manufactures  were 
weapons  of  war.  Of  these,  they  had  a  good  variety,  and 
they  were  often  wrought  by  the  warriors  themselves.  The 
most  graceful,  as  well  as  the  most  complex,  appear  to  have 
been  the  bow  and  arrow.  The  bow  was  made  of  ash,  oak, 
walnut,  but  especially  of  the  sassafras,  the  most  elastic  and 
fragrant  of  all  the  kinds  of  wood  known  to  them.  Their 
bow  strings  were  made  of  hemp,  or  of  the  sinews  of  the  deer. 
The  swamps  supplied  them  with  an  abundance  of  reeds  for 
arrows,  and  some  of  them  were  carefully  wrought  of  wood. 
They  were  all  loaded  with  a  piece  of  flint  stone,  or  bone, 
sharpened  to  a  point,  and  shaped  like  a  spearhead,  that 
steadied  their  flight,  and  made  them,  in  the  hands  of  such 
good  marksmen  as  the  Indians  were,  formidable  weapons.* 
They  had,  also,  a  prominent  weapon,  the  well-known  toma- 
hawk— a  name  terrible  to  us  from  associations  of  horrible 
cruelty  connected  with  its  use  in  all  wars  waged  by  them 
against  the  English.  This  weapon  was  made  of  various 
materials,  and  was  of  various  forms  of  construction.  It  was 
either  a  short,  strong  club  of  hard  wood,  with  one  of  its  ends 
fitted  to  the  hand,  and  the  other  in  the  form  of  a  large  knob 
of  deer's  horn ;  or  else  it  was  a  hatchet  of  stone,  with  a 
grooved  neck  for  the  reception  of  the  little  stick  that  was 
twisted  around  it  as  a  handle.  This  weapon  the  warriors 
managed  with  a  great  deal  of  skill,  and  threw  to  a  considera- 
ble distance  with  fatal  dexterity  and  force.  They  made  spears, 
too,  several  feet  long,  with  heads  of  stone  like  their  arrows.f 
Lastly,  as  connected  with  the  science  of  war,  they  had 
some  skill  in  the  manufacture  of  canoes.  In  Connecticut, 
these  do  not  appear  to  have  been  made  of  bark,  but  of  the 
vast  trunks  of  trees.  The  pine  and  whitewood,  or  tulip-tree, 
were  usually  selected.  Some  of  these  trees  shot  upward 
seventy  or  eighty  feet,  straight  as  an  arrow,  before  sending 
out  a  limb.  As  fire  was  the  main  agent  in  felling  the  tree 
and  hollowing  it,  the  task  of  making  a  canoe  must  have  been 
almost  as  formidable  as  our  own  ship-building. 

*  Trumbull,  i.  47,  48.         t  Deforest's  History  of  the  Indians  of  Conn.  p.  6. 


40  HISTORY  OF  CONNECTICUT. 

Like  many  other  pagan  nations,  the  Indian  deities  repre- 
sented the  abstract  idea  of  force — illimitable,  indeterminate 
force.  They  worshiped  the  elements.  The  waters,  whether 
rolling  between  the  banks  of  rivers,  or  tossing,  white  capped, 
upon  the  shores  of  the  sea ;  the  fire,  the  lightning,  the  thun- 
der, the  wind — nature  in  all  her  rude  forms — every  phe- 
nomenon that  seemed  to  bespeak  a  power  superior  to  their 
own,  they  deemed  worthy  of  homage,  but  propably  not  so 
much  as  gods  as  the  symbols  of  gods.  Of  these  deities,  there 
were  two  of  especial  note.  The  first  was  called  Kitchtan, 
or  Kritchtan,  and  was  believed  to  be  the  benevolent  or  "  good 
god,"  who  cared  for  them  in  this  world,  and  received  the 
souls  of  the  good  and  brave  when  they  died.  He  was  the 
Great  Spirit  of  the  Indian's  heaven.  He  lived  in  a  lovely  land, 
far  away  to  the  sweet  south-west,  beyond  the  hills  where  the 
haze  of  the  Indian  summer  rested  like  a  dim  dream,  inhabit- 
ing hunting  grounds  where  the  deer  and  the  moose  awaited 
his  children ;  a  land  of  plenty,  a  land  of  rest  from  labor  and 
freedom  from  care,  where  the  warrior  could  sate  himself  in 
the  enjoyment  of  those  animal  pleasures  that  could  alone 
make  up  the  Indian's  heaven.  To  this  land  they  made  ready 
to  go.  The  young  brave  had  it  in  his  eye  when  he  went 
forth  to  battle ;  the  old  chief  spoke  of  it  to  his  children  when 
he  laid  himself  down  upon  his  mat  to  die.  There  they  were 
to  meet  to  part  no  more. 

But  the  deity  who  received  most  of  their  offerings,  was  Hob- 
bomocko,  the  representative  of  the  principle  of  evil.*  Love 
him  they  could  not,  for  not  one  of  his  attributes  was  lovely ; 
but,  true  to  the  instincts  of  the  savage,  they  feared  him,  and, 
therefore,  from  motives  of  policy,  they  worshiped  him.  It 
has  been  thought  that  they  sacrificed  human  victims  to  him. 
At  any  rate,  they  set  apart  a  large  share  of  their  most  valua- 
ble property  for  the  festal  days  consecrated  to  him,  and 
burned  it  with  well-dissembled  pleasure,  in  the  hope  of  delud- 
ing him  into  the  belief  that  they  revered  and  honored  him. 
These  ceremonies  were  usually  connected  with  some  great 

*  Trumbull,  i.  43. 


GOVERlsTMENT  OF  THE   ABORIGINES.  41 

public  event  or  threatened  public  calamity,*  and  were  con- 
ducted by  a  class  of  men  set  apart  for  that  purpose — a  kind 
of  priesthood,  who  were  called  Powaws.  At  these  solemni 
ties,  they  danced  in  rings  around  great  fires,  and  made  a 
variety  of  such  hideous  noises  that  the  English  pioneers 
regarded  with  aversion  and  horror  these  unholy  rites,  where 
they  had  good  reason  to  believe  the  devil  presided. 

The  government  of  the  Indians  was  an  hereditary  mon- 
archy, in  theory  absolute,  and  virtually  so,  where  the  chief, 
like  Sassacus,  was  a  man  of  great  prowess  in  war,  and  supe- 
rior wisdom  in  council. f  But  in  all  cases  he  was  surrounded 
by  an  aristocracy,  who  claimed  a  right  to  be  consulted  in 
matters  of  public  importance.  This  aristocracy  was  made 
up  of  men  selected  from  the  wisest  and  bravest  of  the  tribe, 
who  constituted  not  only  the  privy  counselors,  but  also  the 
body-guard  of  the  monarch.  From  childhood  they  were 
inured  to  hardships  and  fatigue,  fed  upon  coarse  fare,  and 
made  to  drink  decoctions  of  bitter  roots  and  herbs,  that  they 
might  be  the  "more  acceptable  to  Hobbomocko."  They  were 
called  Paniese.  They,  in  common  with  the  Powaws,  exalted 
themselves  in  the  estimation  of  the  lower  orders,  by  visions 
and  revelations  of  a  spiritual  kind,  and  by  interviews  with 
Hobbomocko,  face  to  face.  These  they  related  to  the  credu- 
lous multitude  in  the  most  extravagant  language,  enforced  by 
the  wildest  gestures. 

When  Winslow  and  his  handful  of  Plymouth  men  first 
made  the  acquaintance  of  the  powerful  Massasoit,  and  when, 
at  a  later  day,  the  chiefs  that  lived  in  the  neighborhood  of 
Boston  walked  into  the  new  settlement  to  sate  their  curi- 
osity, by  looking  upon  the  humble  state  of  the  governor  of 
Massachusetts,  it  seemed  a  pleasant  thing  to  them  that  this 
little  company  of  pale-faced  men  had  come  among  them.  It 
broke  up  for  a  while  the  monotony  of  savage  life,  and,  besides, 
it  promised  to  the  politic  sachem  the  advantages  of  a  lucra- 
tive traffic.  It  gratified,  too,  his  vanity,  that  court  should  be 
paid  to  him  by  men  of  such  strange  attire,  and  of  wealth  to 

*  Mather's  Magnalia,  iii.  192.         +  Trumbull,  i.  51. 


42  HISTOEY   OF   CONNECTICUT, 

him  so  boundless.  Even  after  he  had  learned  how  fatal  to 
the  moose  and  the  deer,  the  wolf  and  the  bear,  were  the 
weapons  of  the  English  planter,  still  it  did  not  occm'  to  him 
that  the  same  weapons  could  be  turned  upon  him  with  the 
hke  destructive  effects ;  and  after  he  had  learned  that  guns 
were  more  deadly  in  war  than  bows  and  arrows,  his  mind  was 
directed  rather  to  the  injury  they  might  do  to  his  enemies  than 
intimidated  by  the  anticipation  that  they  might  one  day  be 
turned  against  himself.  Hence,  each  chief  courted  an  alli- 
ance with  the  new  race,  never  once  dreaming  that  a  few 
farmers,  who  busied  themselves  with  tasks  fit,  in  his  estima- 
tion, only  for  women,  would  soon  get  possession  of  the 
choicest  lands  that  had  been  transmitted  through  a  long 
line  of  Indian  kings,  and,  finally,  rising  up  as  one  man, 
would  sweep  whole  tribes  from  the  earth,  and  blot  out  their 
proudest  names  from  remembrance.  Uncas  was  doubtless 
leagued  with  the  Connecticut  river  sachems  in  urging  the 
English  to  make  settlements  there.  He  felt  that  he  had 
nothing  to  lose,  and  much  to  gain,  by  calling  to  his  aid  new 
men  and  a  new  mode  of  warfare,  well  adapted  to  strike 
terror  into  the  minds  of  his  enemies. 

Scarcely  had  the  first  log  cabin  been  built  by  the  pioneers 
in  the  valley  of  the  Connecticut,  when  the  high-spirited  Sas- 
sacus,  forecasting  the  growth  and  fruitfulness  of  resources 
incident  to  the  English  race,  began  to  devise  means  for  their 
destruction.  An  Indian  runner  would  carry  news  through 
the  woods  at  the  rate  of  eighty,  and  sometimes  an  hundred, 
miles  a  day,  and  the  nimble  couriers  of  this  ambitious  chief- 
tain were  seen  flying  in  every  direction.  They  represented 
the  white  men  as  rapidly  advancing,  driving  the  Indian  as 
the  fire  drives  the  deer,  when  it  sweeps  over  a  hunting- 
ground — that  one  or  the  other  of  these  races  must  give  place. 
They  advocated  a  war  of  extermination,  as  absolute  as  was 
destined  to  overtake  them. 

Sassacus  also  sent  out  little  depredating  parties,  who  lay 
in  ambush  near  the  new  settlements,  and  committed  sad  rav- 
ages upon  the  inhabitants.     They  stole  cattle  from  them. 


[1634.]  MUEDER   OF   STONE   AND   NORTON.  43 

They  shot  arrows,  from  their  secret  lurking-places,  at  the 
farmer  when  he  went  into  his  field  in  the  morning,  or  buried 
the  stone  hatchet  in  the  forehead  of  his  wife,  and  dashed  out 
the  brains  of  his  little  children,  when  they  were  left  unpro- 
tected at  home. 

In  the  year  1634,  two  traders.  Captain  Stone  and  Captain 
Norton,  came  up  the  Connecticut  river  with  the  design  of 
trafficking  with  the  Dutch  at  Hartford.  They  hired  Indian 
pilots  to  direct  them,  as  they  were  ignorant  of  the  channel. 
Two  of  the  crew  wgre  sent  forward  to  Dutch  Point,  with 
those  pilots.  Faithless  guides  they  proved  to  be,  for  they 
murdered  both  the  Englishmen  at  night  while  they  slept.* 

There  were  twelve  Indians  on  board  Stone's  vessel,  and 
while  it  was  anchored  near  shore  at  night,  and  while  Stone 
was  asleep  in  his  cabin,  they  stole  upon  him  and  murdered 
him,  hiding  his  body  beneath  some  rubbish.  They  then 
made  an  attack  upon  the  crew,  with  little  resistance,  and 
killed  them  all  except  Norton,  who  betook  himself  to  the 
cook  room,  and  fought  desperately,  and  with  such  address, 
that  it  seemed  for  a  long  time  doubtful  how  the  battle  would 
end ;  when,  at  last,  his  powder,  that  had  been  put  in  an  open 
vessel,  took  fire,  and  so  blinded  and  mutilated  him  that  he 
was  disabled  and  slain.  The  booty  that  resulted  from  this 
treacherous  skirmish  was  shared  between  the  Pequots  and 
the  western  Nihanticks.  Sassacus  and  Ninigret,  the  sachems 
of  these  tribes,  doubtless  had  a  secret  agency  in  the  business, 
as  they  partook  of  the  plunder. 

Soon  after  this  outrage,  unprovoked,  so  far  as  can  now  be 
known,  the  deep-seated  hostility  that  existed  between  the 
Narragansetts  and  Pequots  began  to  exhibit  itself  The 
Narragansetts  had  already  dug  up  the  hatchet,  and  were 
sending  out  their  runners  against  their  old  enemy,  Sassacus. 
They  were  making  preparations  for  a  general  war.  The 
Dutch,  too,  had  paid  an  old  debt  of  revenge  for  some  injui'ies 
done  to  them,  by  kiUing  a  Pequot  sachem,  together  with  some 

*  Trumbull,  i.  70;  Wiiithrop,  i.  146;  Miss  Caulkins'  Hist.  ZSTew  London,  27, 
28;  Mass.  Hist.  Collections,  viii.  130,  new  series. 


44:  HISTORY   OF  CONNECTICUT. 

of  his  warriors,  and  taking  others  captive.  Sassacus  and 
his  paniese,  began  to  be  alarmed.  What  was  to  be  done  ? 
There  was  much  need  of  a  good  ally.  At  last,  it  was  re- 
solved by  the  Pequots  to  send  a  messenger  to  the  English  in 
the  Massachusetts,  with  the  view  of  making  a  league,  offen- 
sive and  defensive,  with  them.  In  November  of  the  same 
year,  the  Pequot  courier  presented  himself  before  the  gov- 
ernor at  Boston,  and  made  proposals  for  a  treaty.  But  the 
governor,  not  satisfied  with  the  credentials  of  the  ambassador, 
and,  doubting  his  rank,  put  himself  upon  his  dignity  as  the 
representative  of  the  people,  and  told  him  frankly  that  he  did 
not  like  his  quality,  and  that  the  Pequots  must  send  men  of 
more  weight  and  consequence,  or  he  could  not  treat  with  them. 
The  messenger,  rather  humbled,  one  would  think,  in  being 
the  bearer  of  his  own  disgrace  at  a  foreign  court,  seems  to 
have  done  his  errand  faithfully,  for  in  due  time  two  ministers 
plenipotentiary  appeared,  armed  with  an  acceptable  present, 
and  of  a  gravity  of  character  suitable  to  the  business  in  hand. 
His  excellency  said  he  was  not  averse  to  peace,  but  that  there 
were  some  old  scores  to  be  settled  between  the  two  powers. 
He  charged  the  Pequots  with  the  murder  of  Captain  Stone 
and  his  crew,  and  said  that  the  perpetrators  of  it  must  be 
given  up  to  him  for  punishment.  The  ambassadors  made 
answer,  that  Stone  was  any  thing  but  what  he  should  have 
been ;  that  he  had  abused  the  Indians,  and  tempted  them  to 
kill  him.  They  further  urged,  that  their  nation  was  not  re- 
sponsible for  this  murder,  as  they  had  neither  plotted  nor 
sanctioned  it ;  that  it  was  the  work  of  one  of  the  inferior 
chiefs,  who  acted  without  authority  from  his  master,  and 
that  he  had  already  been  slain  by  the  Dutch.  Finally,  they 
alleged,  that  only  two  of  the  authors  of  this  crime  survived, 
and  they  promised  to  use  their  influence  with  Sassacus  to 
induce  him  to  deliver  them  up  to  justice.  They  begged  the 
English  to  send  a  vessel  with  cloths  to  trade  with  them,  and 
proposed  to  give  them  whatever  title  they  had  to  the  lands 
on  the  Connecticut  river,  if  they  would  send  men  to  live 
there.     They  also  promised  to  give  to  their  new  ally  four 


[1635.]  JOHN   OLDHAM  KILLED.  45 

hundred  fathom  of  wampum,  forty  beaver  skins,  and  thirty 
otter  skins. 

The  treaty  was  at  last  established  between  the  two  powers, 
with  the  usual  solemnities,  much  after  the  terms  proposed  by 
the  Pequots. 

How  much  sincerity  there  was  on  the  part  of  the  Indians 
in  making  these  overtures,  it  is  difficult  to  say.  If  honest  at 
the  time,  their  habitual  fickleness  and  love  of  excitement  pre- 
vented them  from  enjoying  the  blessings  of  an  alliance  that 
had  cost  them  so  much  trouble  in  the  making,  and  was  liable 
to  misconstructions  of  every  sort,  as  well  from  the  old  jeal- 
ousies that  beset  it  on  every  side,  as  from  the  different  char- 
acter, habits,  and  languages  of  the  contracting  parties. 

The  next  year,  while  Mr.  John  Oldham  was  trafficking 
with  the  Indians  off  Block  Island,  a  large  number  of  them 
made  an  attack  upon  him  while  on  board  his  pinnace,  and 
killed  him.  John  Gallop,  who  was  engaged  in  the  same  traf- 
iick  not  long  after,  sailing  near  enough  to  Oldham's  vessel  to 
see  that  her  deck  was  swarming  with  Indians,  readily  divined 
what  had  happened.  He  bore  down  upon  the  pinnace,  and, 
with  one  man  and  two  boys,  (his  whole  crew,)  gave  them 
such  showers  of  duck  shot  that  he  soon  drove  them  under 
hatches.  He  then  stood  off,  and,  with  crowded  canvas  and 
a  brisk  sail,  ran  down  upon  the  pinnace,  striking  her  quarter 
with  such  violence  that  he  nearly  overset  her.  Six  of  the 
Indians,  under  the  terrors  inspired  by  this  new  mode  of  war- 
fare, plunged  overboard  and  were  drowned.  He  repeated 
this  experiment,  again  striking  the  pinnace  with  such  force 
that  he  bored  her  with  his  anchor,  and  might  have  had 
trouble  in  disentangling  himself  from  her  had  not  the  terri- 
fied savages  allowed  him  to  have  it  all  his  own  way.  A 
third  time  he  bore  down  upon  her  with  such  address,  that 
several  more  of  the  savages  leapt  into  the  sea.  Gallop  then 
boarded  her  and  took  two  prisoners,  one  of  whom  he  bound 
and  threw  overboard.*  Two  or  three  others,  who  had  taken 
refuge  below  and  armed  themselves,  could  not  be  driven  from 

*  Miss  Caulkins'  Hist.  New  London,  29. 


46  HISTOEY   OF   CONNECTICUT. 

their  retreat.  Oldham's  dead  body  was  found  on  board,  the 
head  spht  in  half,  and  the  trunk  and  limbs  brutally  mangled. 
It  lay  hidden  under  a  fishing  net.*  Gallop  had  no  difficulty 
in  recognizing  the  remains,  and  exclaimed,  as  he  washed  the 
blood  from  the  ghastly  features  of  the  murdered  man,  "  Oh, 
brother  Oldham,  is  it  thou  ?  I  am  resolved  to  avenge  thee  !"t 
Mutilated  as  was  the  dead  body,  Gallop  committed  it  to  the 
sea  with  reverent  hands.  After  these  simple  obsequies  were 
over,  they  stripped  the  pinnace  of  her  rigging  and  what- 
ever lading  the  Indians  had  left  on  board,  and  proceeded  to 
tow  her  into  port ;  but  the  wind  rose  as  the  sun  went  down, 
and  they  were  obliged  to  cut  her  adrift. 

There  is  little  reason  to  doubt  that  Oldham  was  the  victim 
of  unprovoked,  premeditated  murder.  He  was  from  Dor- 
chester, and  was  a  respectable  trader.  The  Block  Island  and 
Narragansett  Indians  executed  this  plot,  which  was  contrived, 
as  was  supposed,  by  several  of  the  Narragansetts.  Whether 
the  Pequots  helped  to  plan  the  murder,  was  never  distinctly 
proved;  but  it  is  most  probable  that  they  did,  as  they  secreted 
and  protected  several  of  the  conspirators,  who  took  refuge 
among  them. 

Had  it  been  known  to  our  ancestors,  as  it  is  known  to  us, 
how  little  power  the  great  sachems  had  to  control  the  con- 
duct of  their  petty  chiefs,  perhaps  some  of  the  darkest  annals 
of  our  colony  might  never  have  been  penned.  Canonicus, 
the  wise  and  noble  sachem  of  the  Narragansetts,  disclaimed 
any  knowledge  of  this  murder,  and  felt  keenly  the  suspicion 
that  rested  upon  his  tribe.  He  took  the  most  stringent 
measures  to  find  out  the  authors  of  it. 

The  governor,  "  by  the  advice  of  the  magistrates  and  min- 
isters" of  Massachusetts,  resolved  that  the  Block  Island  In- 
dians should  be  chastised.  To  execute  this  rash  penalty, 
ninety  men  were  sent  under  the  command  of  John  Endicott. 
Endicott  was  ordered  to  sail  for  Block  Island,  and  put  to 
death  all  the  men  on  it,  take  the  women  and  children  prisoners, 

»  Savage's  Winthrop,  i.  226  ;  History  of  Boston,  by  S.  G.  Drake,  Esq.,  p.  198. 
+  History  of  Boston,  by  Drake,  199. 


[1636.]  ENDICOTT'S  EXPEDITION.  47 

and  carry  them  to  Boston.*  This  was  to  avenge  the  death 
of  Oldham.  Having  done  this,  he  was  directed  to  sail  for 
Pequot  harbor,  demand  of  the  Pequots  the  murderers  of  Cap- 
tain Stone,  (whose  death  that  tribe  had  already  atoned  for, 
as  they  supposed,  by  executing  such  terms  of  the  late  treaty 
as  they  could,)  and  one  thousand  fathom  of  wampum,  as  well 
as  some  Pequot  children  as  hostages.  If  the  Pequots  failed 
to  meet  these  demands,  he  was  to  use  force. 

Endicott  repaired  to  Block  Island,  and  arrived  there  on  the 
last  day  of  August.  The  surf  rolled  so  high  that  he  could 
scarcely  land  his  men.  Indian  warriors,  to  the  number  of 
sixty,  met  him  on  the  beach.  But,  in  spite  of  the  surf  and 
the  natives,  he  at  length  got  his  troops  ashore.  The  island, 
called  by  the  Indians  Manisses,  or  the  Island  of  the  Little  God, 
was  mostly  covered  with  small  sand  hills,  that  were  over- 
grown with  dwarf  oaks.  To  the  shelter  afforded  by  this 
forbidding  screen,  the  Indians  betook  themselves,  firing  their 
arrows  behind  them  as  they  fled.  There  were  two  large 
plantations  upon  the  island,  with  about  sixty  wigwams.  The 
Indians  had  on  these  plantations  two  hundred  acres  of  corn, 
a  part  of  it  piled  in  heaps  and  a  part  still  standing.  In  two 
days,  Endicott  hunted  out  and  killed  fourteen  Indians,  de- 
stroyed the  corn,  staved  in  the  canoes,  and  burned  every 
wigwam  that  he  could  find.f  He  then  set  sail  for  the  Pequot 
country.  On  his  way  he  stopped  at  Saybrook,  and  reported 
to  Gardiner,  who  commanded  at  the  fort,  what  he  had  done. 
Gardiner,  who  thought  the  Narragansetts,  and  not  the  Block 
Island  Indians,  were  guilty  of  the  murder  of  Oldham,  com- 
plained bitterly  of  this  rash  step.  "  You  come  hither,"  said 
he,  "  to  raise  these  wasps  about  my  ears,  and  then  you  will 
take  wing  and  flee  away."J  This  metaphor,  as  is  often  the 
case  with  figurative  language,  embodied  a  sad  truth,  that  was 
but  too  well  understood  in  Connecticut  not  long  after. 

The  Massachusetts  leader  lost  no  time  in  reaching  Pequot 
harbor.     The  Pequots  were  taken  by  surprise  by  this  visit. 

*  Drake's  History  of  Boston,  201.  +  Drake,  202. 

t  Savage's  Winthrop,  i.  231,  232;  Trumbull,  i.  73. 


48  HISTORY  OF  CONNECTICUT. 

They  came  cautiously  down  to  the  shore,  and  there  learned 
from  the  invader  the  nature  of  his  errand.  This  landing- 
place  was  on  the  eastern  side  of  the  harbor,  and  the  ascent 
that  the  English  toiled  to  gain,  has  since  been  consecrated 
by  the  blood  of  Ledyard  and  his  brave  compatriots,  who 
have  given  to  fort  Griswold  a  fame  that  will  outlast  the  mon- 
ument that  towers  above  the  spot.*  At  length  they  reached 
a  cultivated  country,  where  the  humble  habitations  of  the 
natives  rose  out  of  the  cornfields  that  stretched  along  the  hill- 
sides, and  looked  off  upon  the  harbor  and  river  that  bore  the 
name  of  the  Pequot,  and  afforded  many  a  stealthy  glimpse 
of  the  sea-shore. 

Endicott  had,  from  his  first  arrival,  told  the  Indians  that 
he  must  have  the  heads  of  the  men  who  had  killed  Stone,  or 
else,  said  he,  "we  will  fight."  He  also  demanded  an  inter- 
view with  Sassacus.  He  was  told  that  the  chief  was  at 
Long  Island  and  could  not  be  seen.f  He  then  asked  to  see 
the  sachem  who  was  next  in  rank  ;  and  after  much  delay,  and 
not  until  the  English  had  reached  the  high  land,  whence  they 
could  see  the  Indian  huts,  were  they  told  that  the  chief  of 
whom  they  were  in  search,  was  found.  Endicott  ordered  a 
halt,  and  here  the  cunning  savages  kept  him  in  parley  for  four 
hours,  while  they  could  find  time  to  remove  their  women  and 
children  to  a  safe  hiding  place,  and  secrete  their  most  val- 
uble  personal  property.  When  this  was  done,  the  nimble- 
footed  warriors  began  to  retire,  leaving  the  English  leader  in 
such  ill  humor  with  himself  for  having  been  outwitted,  that 
he  ordered  the  drum  to  beat  and  the  troops  to  advance  upon 
them.  The  savages  let  fly  their  arrows  at  a  safe  distance 
from  behind  the  rocks  and  trees.  Endicott  now  advanced 
upon  the  deserted  wigwams,  and  burnt  them  to  ashes.  Then 
he  destroyed  the  corn  that  was  growing,  and  dug  up  that 
which  had  been  buried  in  the  earth  by  the  Indians.  He  spent 
the  whole  day  in  this  work  of  destruction,  and  at  night  re- 
embarked  with  his  men. J 

*  Miss  Caulkins'  New  London,  31.  t  Savage's  "Winthrop,  1.  232. 

t  Drake,  202.     Tliis  learned  antiquarian  and  historian  is  free  to  acknowledge 


[1636.]  BUTTERFIELD   CAPTURED.  49 

The  next  day  they  landed  on  the  west  side  of  the  river, 
upon  the  site  of  the  town  of  New  London,  and  burned  and 
desolated  the  country  in  a  similar  manner.  They  then  sailed 
for  Narragansett  bay,  leaving  the  twenty  men  who  had  joined 
the  expedition  at  Saybrook  fort  to  return  at  their  leisure. 
Gardiner  had  furnished  these  men,  though  he  was  opposed  to 
the  enterprise.  He  had  also  provided  them  with  bags  to  be 
filled  with  corn.  "  Sirs,"  said  he,  after  entering  his  protest 
against  the  enterprise,  "  Sirs,  seeing  you  will  go,  I  pray  you, 
if  you  don't  load  your  barks  with  Pequots,  load  them  with 
corn." 

Pursuant  to  this  advice,  soon  after  Endicott  had  sailed,  the 
men  furnished  by  Gardiner  went  ashore  and  filled  their  bags 
with  corn.  They  were  on  a  second  visit  to  the  corn-fields, 
and  had  filled  their  bags  again,  when  they  were  startled  by 
frightful  yells.  The  owners  of  the  property  had  caught  them 
in  the  very  act,  and  their  arrows  sped  so  nimbly  among  the 
plunderers,  that  they  were  forced  to  drop  their  sacks  and 
stand  on  the  defensive.  This  they  did  so  boldly,  that  the 
Indians,  who  fought  in  their  usual  irregular  way,  were  soon 
checked.  Yet  the  attack  was  so  often  renewed,  that  the 
English  did  not  reach  their  shallops  again  until  nearly  night. 

Thus  ended  this  unlucky  expedition  of  John  Endicott;  but 
it  was  followed  by  a  long  train  of  unhappy  events.  The  wasps 
were  indeed  stirred  up,  and  their  sting  was  poisonous  and 
deadly.  The  first  attack  was  made  upon  the  Saybrook  fort, 
whither  the  corn  had  been  transported.  Perhaps  the  Pequots 
reasoned  as  the  ministers  and  magistrates  of  Massachusetts 
had  done,  that  they  who  shared  the  plunder  were  responsible 
for  the  bloodshed. 

Early  in  October,  as  five  men  belonging  to  the  garrison 
were  carrying  home  hay  from  the  meadows,  the  Pequots  con- 
cealed themselves  in  the  tall  grass,  surrounded  them,  and  took 
one  Butterfield  prisoner.     The  rest  escaped.    Butterfield  was 

the  impolicy  as  well  as  the  injustice  of  Endieott's  expedition.  He  did  not  cripple 
the  enemy  in  the  least,  but  only  served  to  exasperate  them,  and  arouse  in  their 
bosoms  the  most  implacable  hatred  toward  the  English. 

4 


50  HISTORY  OF  CONlSrECTICUT. 

roasted  alive,  with  the  most  brutal  tortures.  During  the 
same  month,  one  Tilly,  the  master  of  a  small  vessel,  was 
taken  captive  by  the  Pequots,  as  he  was  sailing  down  the 
Connecticut  river.  He  had  anchored  his  craft  about  three 
miles  above  the  fort,  and  imprudently  'gone  ashore  in  a  canoe 
with  a  single  attendant  to  shoot  wild-fowl.  The  first  dis- 
charge of  his  gun  was  a  signal  for  a  large  body  of  Pequots, 
who  lurked  in  the  woods,  to  rush  upon  him.  They  took  Tilly 
alive  and  killed  his  attendant.  They  then  set  themselves  to 
the  task  of  destroying  Tilly  by  piecemeal.  The  captive 
knew  enough  of  their  war  customs  to  be  aware  that  any 
show  of  submission  on  his  part  would  be  treated  with  scorn. 
He  therefore  remained  passive,  as  an  Indian  brave  would 
have  done  in  his  situation.  First  they  cut  off  his  hands. 
He  made  no  complaint.  Then,  in  their  barbarous  way,  they 
amputated  his  feet.  Not  a  groan  escaped  him.  Thus  they 
continued  to  follow  him  up  with  their  most  ingenious  modes 
of  torture,  until  he  died.  Even  in  death,  his  features  showed 
no  traces  of  pain.  His  admiring  tormentors  left  his  remains 
with  the  merited  eulogy  that  he  was  a  "  stout  man."* 

Nothing  could  exceed  the  activity  of  these  Indians,  now 
that  they  were  thoroughly  aroused.  They  lurked  in  the  low- 
lands that  surrounded  the  fort  like  a  malaria.  They  stole 
up  and  down  the  river  by  night  and  day,  watching  for  vic- 
tims. A  house  had  been  built  for  the  uses  of  the  garrison 
about  two  miles  from  the  fort,  and  six  men  were  now  sent  to 
guard  it.  Three  of  them  went  out  upon  the  same  errand  that 
had  cost  Tilly  his  life,  when  one  hundred  Pequots  rose  against 
them  and  took  two  of  them.  The  other  escaped,  wounded 
with  two  arrows.  Success  finally  made  them  so  bold  that 
they  destroyed  all  the  store-houses  connected  with  the  fort, 
burned  up  the  haystacks,  killed  the  cows,  and  ruined  all  the 
property  belonging  to  the  garrison  that  was  not  within  the 
range  of  their  guns.  The  fort  was  literally  besieged  through 
the  entire  winter. f 

In  February,  the  court  met  at  Newtown,  and  ordered  that 


♦  Trumbull,  i.  57  ;  Savage's  Winthrop,  i.  2.38.         +  Winthrop. 


[1637.]         EjS^GLISH  murdered  BY  THE  IISTDIANS.  51 

letters  should  be  sent  to  the  governor  of  Massachusetts, 
deprecating  the  evils  resulting  from  Endicott's  expedition, 
and  calling  on  the  governor  for  men  to  help  prosecute  the 
war  with  vigor.  Soon  after,  Captain  Mason  was  sent  with 
twenty  men  to  reinforce  the  garrison  at  Saybrook. 

Lieutenant  Gardiner  went  out  one  day  in  March,  with 
about  a  dozen  men,  to  burn  the  marshes.  The  Indians  lay 
in  wait  for  him,  as  he  passed  a  narrow  neck  of  land,  killed 
three  of  his  men,  and  mortally  wounded  another.  Gardiner 
himself  was  also  wounded.  They  pursued  him  to  the  very 
walls  of  the  fort,  and,  surrounding  it  in  great  numbers, 
mocked  the  fugitives,  imitating  the  dying  groans  and  prayers 
of  the  English  whom  they  had  taken  captive  and  tortured, 
and  challenging  the  garrison  to  leave  the  fort  and  come 
out  and  fight  like  men.  They  said  they  could  kill  English- 
men "  all  one  flies."  Nothing  but  grape  shot  could  quiet 
them.* 

Soon  after,  the  Pequots  in  canoes  boarded  a  shallop  as  she 
was  sailing  down  the  river.  She  had  thi'ee  men  on  board. 
The  Englishmen  made  a  bold  defence,  but  in  vain.  One  of 
them  was  shot  through  the  head  with  an  arrow,  and  fell  over- 
board. The  Indians  took  the  other  two  and  killed  them. 
They  then  split  their  bodies  in  twain,  and  suspended  them  all 
by  their  necks  over  the  water,  upon  the  branches  of  trees, 
hideous  spectacles,  to  be  gazed  at  by  the  English  as  they 
passed  up  and  down  the  river. 

The  Indians  united  the  keenest  sarcasm  with  a  power 
of  imitation  and  grimace  unrivaled  even  among  children. 
They  would  put  on  the  clothes  of  Englishmen  whom  they 
had  roasted  alive,  and  present  themselves  in  little  bands  on 
the  lawn  in  front  of  the  fort,  where  they  would  enact  over 
again  the  horrible  drama,  kneeling  down  and  praying  with 
the  fervent  voice  and  agonized  gestures  of  the  sufferers,  and 
utter  lamentations  and  cries  indicative  of  the  most  unspeaka- 
ble anguish.  This  theatrical  entertainment  was  usually  ended 
with  insults  offered  to  Gardiner  in  broken  English,  or  with 

*  Triunbull,  i.  76. 


52  HISTOEY   OF   CONNECTICUT, 

peals  of  demoniac  laughter.     Then  they  would  take  to  their 
heels  and  run  into  the  woods. 

About  this  time,  Thomas  Stanton,  who  could  speak  the 
Indian  language  so  well  that  he  often  acted  as  interpreter  for 
the  colonies,  arrived  in  a  vessel  at  Saybrook.  While  waiting 
at  the  fort  for  a  fair  wind,  a  few  Indians  were  seen  to  come 
down  one  day  to  a  hill  within  musket  range  of  the  palisades, 
and  hide  themselves  behind  the  trees.  Gardiner  ordered  that 
the  cannon  should  be  pointed  at  the  place  where  they  lurked, 
and  fired  off  when  he  waved  his  hat.  Three  of  the  savages 
soon  rose  and  cautiously  advanced  towards  the  fort  under 
pretense  of  a  parley.  Gardiner,  willing,  perhaps,  to  amuse 
his  guest,  walked  out  with  him  a  little  way,  that  they  might 
come  within  speaking  distance  of  the  Indians.  When  the 
Englishmen  had  reached  the  stump  of  a  large  tree  they 
stopped.  "Who  are  you?"  asked  the  Indians.  Stanton, 
replying  to  them  in  their  own  language,  said,  "  That  is  the 
Lieutenant,"  and  added  that  his  own  name  was  Thomas 
Stanton.  The  Indians  rephed,  "  It  is  false ;  we  saw  the 
Lieutenant  the  other  day  shot  full  of  arrows."  But  as  soon 
as  Gardiner  spoke  they  saw  their  mistake,  for  one  of  the  In- 
dians knew  him  well.  They  then  cunningly  asked,  "  Will 
you  fight  with  the  Nihanticks  ?  The  Nihanticks  are  your 
friends,  and  we  have  come  to  trade  with  you."  "  We  do 
not  know  one  Indian  from  another,"  replied  Stanton,  "  and 
we  will  trade  with  none  of  them."  "  Have  you  had  fighting 
enough  ?"  asked  the  Indians.  "  We  do  not  know  that  yet," 
returned  the  interpreter.  "Is  it  your  custom  to  kill  women 
and  children?"  rejoined  the  other  party  to  the  dialogue. 
"That  you  shall  see  hereafter." 

A  long  pause  ensued,  when  one  of  the  Indians  said,  with  a 
haughty  air,  "  We  are  Pequots  ;  and  have  killed  Englishmen, 
and  can  kill  them  as  mosquitoes :  and  we  will  go  to  Connec- 
ticut, and  kill  men,  women,  and  children,  and  carry  away  the 
horses,  cows,  and  hogs."  Gardiner  then  replied,  with  that 
good-natured  irony  so  common  with  him,  "  No,  no ;  if  you 
kill  all  the  English  there,  it  will  do  you  no  good.     English 


[1637.]  ATTACK    UPON  WETHEESFIELD.  53 

women  are  lazy,  and  can't  do  your  work.  The  horses  and 
cows  will  spoil  your  corn-fields.  The  hogs  will  root  up  your 
clam  banks.  You  will  be  completely  undone.  But  look  here 
at  our  fort.  Here  are  twenty  pieces  of  trucking-cloth,  and 
hoes,  and  hatchets ;  you  had  better  kill  us  and  get  these 
things,  before  you  trouble  yourselves  to  go  up  to  Connec- 
ticut."* 

The  Indians,  enraged  at  this  taunt,  and  unable  to  answer 
it,  betook  themselves  to  the  thicket.  They  had  scarcely 
reached  it,  when  Gardiner  gave  the  signal  that  was  followed 
by  a  discharge  of  grape,  that  did  the  Indians  little  harm  be- 
yond the  fright  that  it  gave  them. 

In  April,  they  went  as  far  as  Wethersfield,  and  waylaid  the 
farmers  as  they  went  into  the  fields  to  labor.  They  killed  six 
men  and  two  women,  and  took  captive  two  maidens,f  who 
were  long  and  anxiously  sought  after,  and  were  finally  safely 
restored  to  their  friends  by  the  Dutch.  They  owed  their 
lives  to  the  wife  of  Mononotto,  a  chief  second  only  to  Sas- 
sacus.  She  protected  them  with  a  faithfulness  and  delicacy, 
that  were  honorably  requited  when  it  came  her  turn  to  be  a 
prisoner.  At  Wethersfield,  also,  they  killed  twenty  cows,  and 
destroyed  other  property  to  a  large  amount. 

Not  long  after,  John  Underbill,  who  had  served  under  En- 
dicott  in  his  attack  upon  the  Pequots  the  year  before,  was 
sent  from  Massachusetts  with  twenty  men,  to  reinforce  the 
garrison  at  Saybrook.  When  he  reached  the  fort.  Mason 
and  his  men  returned  to  Hartford. 

With  such  an  enemy  hanging  about  the  skirts  of  their 
three  infant  settlements — an  enemy,  growing  every  hour 
more  daring  and  reckless — it  was  evident  that  some  decisive 
steps  must  be  taken  at  once. 

In  the  midst  of  these  calamities  the  General  Court  met  at 
Hartford,  on  the  1st  of  May,  1G37.  This  court  represented 
the  little  republic  of  less  than  three  hundred  souls.  An  ex- 
cited session  it  was,  and  one  fraught  with  doubts  and  teeming 

*  Gardiner.     Mass.  Hist.  Col.  xxxiii.  144,  146  ;  Mass.  Hist.  Col.  xxxvi.  11. 
t  Mass.  Hist.  Col.  viii.  132,  new  series ;  Trumbull,  i.  77. 


54  HISTOEY   OF   CONNECTICUT. 

with  weighty  considerations.  There  is  Httle  evidence  left  us 
that  there  was  a  single  faint  heart  in  this  company  of  fifteen 
picked  men — six  magistrates,  and  nine  committee-men — 
who  had  in  their  hands  the  fate  of  Connecticut.  Little 
evidence  of  feai%  indeed,  is  to  be  found  in  the  records  of  this 
body,  for  the  first  written  memorial  that  we  have  of  their 
doings,  is  in  the  following  concise  words  :  "  It  is  ordered  that 
thei'e  shall  be  an  ofiensive  war  against  the  Pequot,  and  there 
shall  be  ninety  men  levied  out  of  the  three  plantations  of 
Hartford,  Wethersfield,  and  Windsor  ;"*  a  declaration  of  war 
of  a  phraseology  so  unmistakable  in  its  simplicity,  that  we 
would  joyfully  recommend  it  to  the  legislative  bodies  of  our 
own  day — words  that  the  reader  will  not  be  surprised  to  find 
employed  by  a  body,  including  the  names  of  Ludlow,  Steele, 
Talcott,  and  Sherman.  Of  these  troops,  Hartford  was  to 
furnish  forty-two,  Windsor  thirty,  and  Wethersfield  eighteen. 
It  was  a  short  session,  for  long  speeches  were  not  then  in 
fashion  in  any  of  the  American  colonies,  where  a  sound 
head  and  a  ready  hand  were  in  better  request  than  nimble 
tongues.  After  providing  for  the  munitions  and  supplies 
requisite  to  carry  on  the  war,  the  court  adjourned. 

The  little  commonwealth  was  united  as  one  man  in  the 
cause,  and  the  preparations  went  forward  with  such  prompt- 
ness, that  in  about  a  week  after  the  war  was  resolved  upon, 
the  troops  were  ready  to  set  sail. 

It  was  on  Wednesday,  the  10th  of  May,  that  the  heroic 
army  embarked  at  Hartford,  in  "  a  pink,  a  pinnace,  and  a 
shallop,"t  a  hundred  and  sixty  men ;  the  ninety  English 
levied  from  the  plantations,  and  seventy  Mohegan  Indians, 
under  the  command  of  Uncas,  and  set  sail  for  the  mouth  of 
the  river.  The  renowned  John  Mason  was  Captain  of  the 
army,  and  Samuel  Stone,  scarcely  less  known  to  fame  for  his 
battles  in  a  different  field  of  strife,  was  its  chaplain,  or  spirit- 
ual guide. 

The  water  was  so  shallow  at  this  season  of  the  year,  that 

*  J.  Hammond  Trumbull's  Colonial  Records,  i.  9. 
t  Mason's  "  History  of  the  Pequot  War." 


[1637.]  AN   INDIAN   CAPTIVE   EOASTED.  55 

the  vessels  several  times  ran  aground  in  dropping  down  the 
river.  This  delay  was  so  irksome  to  the  Indians,  that  they 
begged  to  be  set  ashore,  to  which  Mason  consented,  on  their 
promising  to  meet  the  English  at  Saybrook.  It  was  not  until 
the  15th  of  May,  that  Mason  and  his  men  arrived  at  Say- 
brook,  having  spent  five  days  in  sailing  about  fifty  miles. 
Uncas  kept  his  word,  and  joined  the  English  at  Saybrook  fort. 
He  had  fought  one  battle  during  his  absence,  and  killed 
seven  hostile  Indians.  The  report  of  this  skirmish  was  veri- 
fied by  Captain  John  Underbill,  who  came  with  Uncas,  when 
he  rejoined  the  English  troops.  Underbill  also  tendered  to 
Mason  his  services,  with  nineteen  men,  for  the  expedition,  if 
Lieutenant  Gardiner,  who  as  we  have  seen  commanded  at  Say- 
brook fort,  would  consent  to  it.  Gardiner  as  readily  granted 
him  and  his  men  leave  to  go.  Mason  was  delighted  with  this 
new  ally,  and  at  once  resolved  to  send  back  twenty  of  his 
own  troops  to  protect,  during  his  absence,  the  almost  defence- 
less towns  upon  the  river.*  In  his  recent  expedition,  Uncas,  in 
addition  to  the  seven  Indians  that  he  had  killed,  had  also  taken 
one  prisoner.  Unluckily  for  the  captive,  he  was  known  to  be 
a  spy.  He  had  aflfected  great  friendship  for  the  English,  and 
had  lived  with  the  garrison  at  the  fort  long  enough  to  acquire 
their  language.  He  then  communicated  to  Sassacus  their  most 
secret  counsels.  Besides,  he  had  been  present  at  the  horrid 
murders  perpetrated  by  the  Pequots  at  Saybrook.  Uncas 
claimed  the  right  to  execute  this  Indian  after  the  custom  of 
his  tribe.  Never  was  justice  meted  out  to  a  wretch  with  a 
more  lavish  hand.  He  was  torn  limb  from  limb,  and  roasted 
in  a  fire  kindled  for  that  purpose,  and  then  passed  around  the 
council-ring,  and  eaten  by  Uncas  and  his  Mohegans  with  a 
relish  equaled  only  by  the  demonstrations  of  joy  with  which 
they  threw  the  bones  into  the  fire  when  they  had  completed 
their  meal.f 

Mason  now  began  to  be  aware  how  critical  was  the  task 
he  had  undertaken.  From  Wednesday,  when  he  arrived  at 
the  mouth  of  the  Connecticut  river,  until  the  next  Friday, 

*  Mason  ;  Drake  207  ;  Brodhead,  i.  271.  +  Trumbull,  i.  80. 


66  HISTOEY  OF  CONNECTICUT. 

his  little  fleet  lay  wind-bound  near  the  fort,  and  within  sight 
of  the  Pequot  runners  and  spies  who  kept  watch  along  the 
river.  Mason's  commission  instructed  him  to  sail  directly 
for  Pequot  harbor,  land  his  men  there,  and  attack  the 
enemy  on  their  own  ground.  But  the  keen  soldier  saw  at  a 
glance  the  peril  of  obeying  such  orders.  Had  he  not  been 
kept  so  long  at  Saybrook,  the  case  might  have  been  different. 
But  eight  days  had  elapsed  since  he  set  sail  from  Hartford, 
and  he  well  knew  that  a  Pequot  runner,  could  carry  the  news 
from  the  mouth  of  the  Connecticut  to  that  of  the  Thames 
in  an  hour,  and  that  the  shore  would  be  lined  with  savages 
to  meet  them  on  their  arrival.  Besides,  the  shore  was  wild 
and  rough,  with  rocks  and  trees  that  afforded  a  safe  screen  to 
the  Indians.  He  also  knew  from  the  poor  girls  who  had  been 
taken  captive  at  Wethersfield,  and  who  had  just  been  brought 
safely  back  to  Saybrook  by  the  Dutch,  that  the  Pequots  had 
sixteen  guns  in  their  possession,  and  had  learned  how  to  use 
them.  The  Pequot  warriors,  too,  he  was  aware,  many  times 
outnumbered  his  own,  and  were  swift  of  foot,  and  having  the 
advantage  of  a  favorable  position  on  land,  could  offer  a  for- 
midable opposition  to  the  English,  who  were  more  slow  in 
their  movements.  The  Pequots,  too,  could  choose  their 
ground,  as  their  harbor  was  the  only  place  within  many  miles 
where  the  English  could  land.  Lastly,  he  saw,  that  if  he 
could  fall  upon  the  enemy  in  the  rear,  and  when  they  were 
not  prepared  for  an  attack,  they  would  fall  an  easy  prey  into 
his  hands. 

Mason  summoned  a  council  of  war,  and  assigned  boldly 
these  reasons,  among  others,  why  it  was  necessary  to  depart 
from  the  letter  of  the  commission,  and  land  at  some  other 
point  than  the  one  named  in  it.  He  said,  in  such  an  emer- 
gency, their  necessities  must  be  their  masters.  He  urged  the 
propriety  of  sailing  past  the  Pequot  country,  as  far  as  Narra- 
gansett  bay,  and,  there  landing  his  army,  march  through  the 
Narragansett  country,  under  the  protection  of  the  old  here- 
ditary enemies  of  the  Pequots,  steal  upon  them  in  the  night 
and  crush  them. 


[1637.J  THE   CHAPLAIN   CONSULTED.  57 

This  advice,  backed  as  it  was  by  such  cogent  reasoning,  the 
other  members  of  the  council  did  not  dare  to  second.  The 
grim  authority  of  the  court  haunted  their  minds  Hke  a  spec- 
tre. They  were  law-abiding  men.  How  should  they  dare 
traverse  the  written  will  of  the  republic  ?  They  saw  the 
overwhelming  force  of  Mason's  arguments — they  foresaw  the 
death  that  awaited  them,  if  they  pursued  the  line  marked  out 
by  the  commission,  yet  those  iron-hearted  men,  in  the  strong 
language  of  Mason,  "  were  at  a  stand,  and  could  not  judge  it 
meet  to  sail  to  Narragansett."  What  was  to  be  done  ?  A 
breeze  might  spring  up  at  any  moment,  and  then  they  must 
set  sail.  They  had  clearly  no  time  to  waste  in  debate.  At 
last  Mason  remembers  that  these  men,  though  they  honor  the 
authority  of  written  laws,  do  so  only  because  those  laws  are 
supposed  to  express  the  will  of  God.  Is  not  Mr.  Stone,  one 
of  the  chosen  servants  of  God,  on  board  one  of  his  vessels  ? 
What  so  fitting  as  to  consult  the  chaplain  ? 

Accordingly,  Mason  had  an  interview  with  Mr.  Stone, 
and  begged  him  "  to  commend  their  condition  to  the  Lord 
that  night,"  and  ask  advice  of  him. 

The  next  morning,  the  chaplain  came  ashore,  and  told  Cap- 
tain Mason  "he  had  done  as  he  had  de-ired,  and  was  fully  satis- 
fied to  sail  for  Narragansett."  The  council  was  again  called, 
the  case  again  stated,  and  with  one  consent  they  agreed  to 
sail  for  Narragansett  bay.*  It  was  on  Friday  morning  that 
they  set  sail,  and  arrived  in  port  on  Saturday  evening.  But 
the  wind  blew  with  such  violence  from  the  north-west,  that 
they  could  not  effect  a  landing  until  Tuesday  at  sunset ;  at 
which  time  Captain  Mason  landed  and  marched  up  to  the  resi- 
dence of  Miantinomoh,  the  chief  sachem  of  the  Narraean- 
setts.  Mason  told  the  sachem,  that  he  had  not  an  opportu- 
nity to  acquaint  him  beforehand  of  his  coming  armed  into 
his  country  ;  yet  he  doubted  not  the  object  would  be  approved 
by  him,  as  the  English  had  come  to  avenge  the  wrongs  and 
injuries  they  had  received  from  the  common  enemy,  the 
Pequots.     Miantinomoh  expressed  himself  pleased  with  the 

*  Mason's  Narrative. 


58  HISTORY   OF   CONNECTICUT. 

design  of  Mason,  but  thought  his  numbers  were  too  few  to 
deal  with  the  enemy,  who  were,  as  he  said,  "  very  great  cap- 
tains, and  men  skillful  in  war."* 

During  the  night,  an  Indian  runner  came  into  the  camp 
with  a  letter  from  Captain  Patrick,  who  had  been  sent  from 
Massachusetts  with  a  small  body  of  men  to  assist  Connecti- 
cut in  prosecuting  the  war,  informing  Mason  that  he  had 
reached  Providence  with  the  Massachusetts  forces,  and  beg- 
ging him  to  remain  where  he  was  until  they  could  unite. 
But  the  Connecticut  troops  were  worn  with  fatigue  and  im- 
patient to  return  home  ;  and  it  was  finally  resolved  that  they 
would  not  wait  for  their  Massachusetts  allies,  but  would 
march  for  the  Pequot  country  the  next  morning.  The  Nar- 
ragansett  Indians  entertained  such  a  dread  of  the  Pequots 
that  they  could  not  believe  the  English  to  be  in  earnest. 

It  was  on  Wednesday,  the  24th  of  May,  that  the  little  army 
of  seventy-seven  Englishmen,  sixty  Mohegans  and  Connec- 
ticut river  Indians,  and  about  two  hundred  Narragansetts, 
began  their  march  for  the  Pequot  forts.  They  went  that  day 
about  twenty  miles,  when  they  reached  the  eastern  Nihantick, 
a  country  that  bordered  on  the  Pequot  territory.  Here  was 
the  seat  of  one  of  the  Narragansett  sachems,  and  here  he 
had  a  fort.  But  he  refused  to  treat  with  the  English,  or  let 
them  enter  his  palisades  to  pass  the  night.  Mason,  having 
good  cause  to  think  from  their  behavior,  that  these  Indians 
were  in  league  with  the  Pequots,  set  a  strong  guard  about 
their  fort,  and  would  not  allow  one  of  them  to  escape  from  it 
during  the  night. f  But  the  conduct  of  the  Nihanticks,  was 
attributable  to  suspicion  and  fear,  rather  than  to  any  alliance 
with  the  Pequots,  as  the  event  proved ;  for  when  they  saw, 
the  next  morning,  that  the  English  were  reinforced  by  a  large 
party  of  Narragansetts,  sent  on  by  Miantinomoh,  they  took 
heart,  and,  forming  a  circle,  declared  that  they,  too,  would 
fight  the  Pequots,  and  boasted  with  their  usual  bravado  how 
many  they  would  kill ;  so  that  when  Mason  resumed  his 
march  on  Thursday,  he  had  about  five  hundred  Indian  war- 

*  Mason's  Narrative.         +  lb. 


[1637.]  MARCH  TO\rARD   MISTICK.  59 

riors  in  his  train.  The  day  was  very  sultry  and  oppressive, 
and  some  of  the  men  fainted  from  heat,  and  the  exhaustion 
that  followed  from  a  want  of  suitable  provisions.  After 
marching  about  twelve  miles  to  a  ford  in  the  Pawcatuck  river, 
the  old  fishing-ground  of  the  Pequots,*  the  army  made  a  halt 
and  rested  a  while.  The  Narragansett  Indians,  had,  from  the 
first  arrival  of  Mason  among  them,  looked  with  ill-concealed 
contempt  upon  the  scanty  numbers  and  supposed  weakness 
of  the  English.  They  had  more  than  once  hinted  that  Mason 
and  his  men  had  not  the  courage  to  fight  the  Pequots,  and 
that  whatever  skill  and  firmness  there  was  in  the  army,  was 
confined  to  their  own  ranks.  But,  now  that  they  had  come 
into  the  country  of  Sassacus,  and  found  that  they  were 
within  a  few  miles  of  his  principal  fortress,  the  expedition 
seemed  no  longer  to  be  a  pleasant  jest  to  them,  but  an  earn- 
est reality,  that  grew  more  and  more  fearful  with  every  step 
that  lessened  the  distance  between  them  and  the  chief,  who 
was  more  terrible  to  their  imaginations  than  Hobbomocko 
himself.  Mason  at  last  called  Uncas  to  him,  and  asked  him 
what  he  had  to  expect  from  the  Indians.  The  chief  replied, 
that  the  Narragansetts  would  all  drop  off",  but  that  he  and  his 
Mohegans  would  never  leave  the  English.  "  For  which  ex- 
pression and  some  other  speeches  of  his,"  says  Mason,  "I 
shall  never  forget  him." 

After  dining  upon  such  coarse  fare  as  was  to  be  had,  they 
marched  about  three  miles  to  a  field  just  planted  with  Indian 
corn.  Here  they  made  another  halt  and  held  a  council,  for 
it  was  thought  that  they  drew  near  the  enemy.  The  Indians 
now  told  them,  for  the  first  time,  that  the  Pequots  had  two 
forts,  and  that  they  were  "almost"  impregnable.  Nothing 
daunted  by  this  intelligence,  the  council  resolved  to  attack 
both  these  fortresses  at  once.  But,  on  further  inquiry,  it  ap- 
peared that  the  principal  fort,  where  Sassacus  resided,  was  too 
remote  to  be  reached  before  midnight,  so  they  were  com- 
pelled to  abandon  this  plan,  and  attack  the  smaller  one  at 
Mistick. 

*  Johnson's  Wonder- Working  Providence,  Mass.  Hist.  Coll.  xxiv,  p.  47. 


60  HISTOEY  OF   CONNECTICUT. 

The  prediction  of  Uncas,  with  regard  to  the  Narragan- 
setts,  was  soon  verified.  Indeed,  all  the  Indians,  who  had  at 
first  marched  in  the  van,  fell  into  the  rear ;  and  soon  not  a 
Narragansett  was  to  be  seen.  Wequash,  a  petty  chief  who 
had  revolted  from  Sassacus,  was  the  guide  upon  whom  Mason 
most  relied,  and  he  proved  worthy  of  trust.  They  marched 
on  in  silence  until  about  an  hour  after  sunset,  when  they 
reached  a  small  swamp  between  two  hills.  Here,  supposing 
that  they  were  near  the  fort,  "  they  pitched  their  little  camp" 
between  two  high  rocks,  ever  since  known  as  "  Porter's 
Rocks."  It  was  a  clear  night,  with  a  shining  moon.  Mason 
set  his  guards,  and  stationed  his  sentinels  at  a  great  distance 
from  the  camp,  to  prevent  the  possibility  of  a  surprise.  Then 
the  tired  soldiers,  with  no  tents  to  shelter  them  from  the  dew, 
laid  themselves  down  under  the  open  sky  and  slept.  "  The 
rocks  were  our  pillows,"  says  the  heroic  leader  of  the  expe- 
dition, "  yet  rest  was  pleasant."  Mistick  fort  was  farther 
off  from  the  camp  than  they  had  been  led  to  suppose.  It  was 
so  near,  however,  that  the  sentries  heard  the  enemy  singing 
there  till  midnight,  a  wild  strain  of  joy  and  exultation,  they 
afterwards  found  it  to  have  been,  in  commemoration  of  the 
supposed  flight  of  Mason  and  his  men — for  they  had  watched 
their  vessels  a  few  days  before,  when  they  sailed  eastward, 
and  rationally  enough  concluded  that  they  dared  not  meet 
the  dreaded  Pequot  in  battle.  This  night  of  festivity  was 
their  last. 

About  two  hours  before  day,  the  men  were  roused  up  and 
commanded  to  make  themselves  ready  for  battle.  The  moon 
still  shone  full  in  their  faces  as  they  were  summoned  to  prayer. 
They  now  set  forward  with  alacrity.  The  fort  proved  to  be 
about  two  miles  off.  A  long  way  it  seemed  over  the  level 
though  stony  ground,  and  the  officers  began  at  last  to  fear 
that  they  had  been  led  upon  the  wrong  track,  when  they 
came  at  length  to  a  second  field  of  corn,  newly  planted,  at 
the  base  of  a  high  hill.  Here  they  halted,  and  "  gave  the 
word  for  some  of  the  Indians  to  come  up."  At  first  not  an 
Indian  was  to  bo  seen ;  but  finally,  Uncas  and  Wequash  the 


[1637.]  ATTACK   UPON   MISTICK  FORT,  61 

guide  showed  themselves.  "  Where  is  the  fort  ?"  demanded 
Mason.  "  On  the  top  of  that  hill,"  was  the  answer.  "  Where 
are  the  rest  of  the  Indians  ?"  asked  the  fearless  soldier. 
The  answer  was,  what  he  probably  anticipated,  "  Behind, 
and  very  much  afraid."  "  Tell  them,"  said  Mason,  "not  to 
fly,  but  to  stand  as  far  off  as  they  please,  and  see  whether 
Englishmen  will  fight." 

There  were  two  entrances  to  the  fort,  one  on  the  north- 
eastern side,  the  other  on  the  west.  It  was  decided  that 
Mason  should  lead  on  and  force  open  the  former,  while  Un- 
derbill, who  brought  up  the  rear,  was  to  pass  around  and  go 
in  at  the  western  gate. 

Mason  had  approached  within  about  a  rod  of  the  fort,  when 
he  heard  a  dog  bark,  and  almost  in  a  breath,  this  alarm  was 
followed  up  by  the  voice  of  an  Indian,  crying,  "  Owanux ! 
Owanux!" — Englishmen,  Englishmen!  No  time  was  to  be 
lost.  He  called  up  his  forces  with  all  haste,  and  fired  upon 
the  enemy  through  the  palisades.  The  Pequots,  who  had 
spent  the  night  in  singing  and  dancing,  were  now  in  a  deep 
sleep.  The  entrance  near  which  Mason  stood,  was  blocked 
up  with  bushes  about  breast  high.  Over  this  frail  obstruction 
he  leaped,  sword  in  hand,  shouting  to  his  men  to  follow  him. 
But  Seely,  his  lieutenant,  found  it  more  easy  to  remove  the 
bushes  than  to  force  the  men  over  them.  When  he  had  done 
so,  he  also  entered,  followed  by  sixteen  soldiers.  It  had  been 
determined  to  destroy  the  enemy  with  the  sword,  and  thus 
save  the  corn  and  other  valuables  that  were  stored  in  the 
wigwams.  With  this  view,  the  captain,  seeing  no  Indians, 
entered  one  of  these  wigwams.  Here  he  found  many  warri- 
ors who  crowded  hard  upon  him,  and  beset  him  with  great 
violence ;  but  they  were  so  amazed  at  the  strange  apparition 
that  had  so  suddenly  thrust  itself  upon  them,  that  they  could 
make  but  a  feeble  resistance.  Mason  was  soon  joined  by 
William  Hayden,  who,  as  he  entered  the  wigwam  through 
the  breach  that  had  been  made  by  his  impetuous  captain, 
stumbled  against  the  dead  body  of  a  Pequot,  whom  Mason 
had  slain,  and  fell.     Some  of  the  Indians  now  fled  from  the 


62  HISTORY   OF   CONNECTICUT, 

wigwam ;  others,  still  stupefied  with  sleep,  crept  under  mats 
and  skins  to  hide  themselves. 

The  palisades  embraced  an  area  of  about  twenty  acres — a 
space  sufficient  to  afford  room  for  a  large  Indian  village. 
There  were  more  than  seventy  houses  in  this  space,  with 
lanes  or  streets  passing  between  them.  Mason,  still  intent 
on  destroying  the  Pequots,  and  at  the  same  time  saving  their 
property,  now  left  the  wigwam,  and  passed  down  one  of  these 
streets,  driving  the  crowd  of  Indians  that  thronged  it  before 
him  from  one  end  of  it  to  the  other.  At  the  lower  extremity 
of  this  lane  stood  a  little  company  of  Englishmen,  who, 
having  effected  an  entrance  from  the  west,  met  the  Indians 
as  they  fled  from  Mason,  and  killed  about  half  a  dozen  of  them. 
The  captain  now  faced  about,  and  went  back  the  whole 
length  of  the  lane,  to  the  spot  where  he  had  entered  the  fort. 
He  was  exhausted,  and  quite  out  of  breath,  and  had  become 
satisfied  that  this  was  not  the  way  to  exterminate  the  Indians, 
who  now  swarmed  from  the  wigwams  like  bees  from  a  hive. 
Two  of  his  soldiers  stood  near  him,  close  to  the  palisades, 
with  their  useless  swords  pointed  to  the  ground.  Their 
dejected  faces  told  him  that  they  felt  as  he  did,  that  the  task 
was  a  hopeless  one.  "  We  shall  never  kill  them  in  this  way," 
said  the  captain ;  and  then  added,  with  the  same  laconic  brevity, 
"  We  must  burn  them ! "  With  these  words  the  decree  of  the 
council  of  war  to  save  the  booty  of  the  enemy  was  annulled  ; 
for,  stepping  into  the  wigwam  where  he  had  before  forced  an 
entrance,  he  snatched  a  fire-brand  in  his  hand,  and  instantly 
returning,  applied  it  to  the  light  mats  that  formed  the  cov- 
ering of  their  rude  tenements.  Almost  in  an  instant,  the 
little  village  was  wrapped  in  flames,  and  the  frightened 
Pequots  fled  in  dismay  from  the  roofs  that  had  just  before 
sheltered  them.  Such  was  their  terror,  that  many  of  them 
took  refuge  from  the  English  in  the  flames,  and  perished  therf^. 
Some  climbed  the  palisades,  where  they  afforded  but  too  fiiir 
a  mark  for  the  muskets  of  their  enemies,  who  could  see  to  take 
a  dead  aim  in  the  light  of  the  ghastly  conflagration.  Others 
fled  from  the  beds  of  mats  or  skins,  where  they  had  sought  a 


[1637.]  mason's  victory.  63 

temporary  concealment,  and  were  arrested  by  the  hand  of 
death  in  the  midst  of  their  flight.  Others,  still,  warping  up  to 
the  windward,  whence  the  fire  sped  with  such  fatal  velocity,  fell 
flat  upon  the  ground  and  plied  their  destroyers  with  arrows. 
But  their  hands  wei'e  so  palsied  with  fear,  that  the  feathered 
messengers  either  flew  wide  of  their  aim  or  fell  with  spent 
force  upon  the  ground.  A  few,  of  still  stouter  heart,  rushed 
forth  with  the  tomahawk,  to  engage  the  invaders  of  their 
homes  in  a  hand  to  hand  combat.  But  they  were  nearly  all, 
to  the  number  of  about  forty,  cut  in  pieces  by  the  sword. 
The  vast  volume  of  flame,  the  lurid  light  reflected  on  the  dark 
background  of  the  horizon,  the  crack  of  the  muskets,  the 
yell  of  the  Indians  who  fought,  and  of  those  who  sought  vainly 
to  fly,  the  wail  of  women  and  children  as  they  writhed  in  the 
flames,  and  the  exulting  cries  of  the  Narragansetts  and  Mohe- 
gans  without  the  fort,  formed  a  contrast,  awful  and  sublime, 
with  the  quiet  glories  of  the  peaceful  May  morning,  that  was 
just  then  breaking  over  the  woods  and  the  ocean. 

Seventy  wigwams  were  burned  to  ashes,  and  probably 
not  less  than  five  hundred  men,  women,  and  children  were 
destroyed.*  The  property,  too,  shared  the  same  fate.  The 
long-cherished  wampum-belt,  with  the  beads  of  blue,  purple, 
and  white,  the  war-club,  the  eagle  plume,  the  tufted  scalps, 
trophies  of  many  a  victory — helped  only  to  swell  the  blaze 
that  consumed  alike  the  young  warrior  and  the  superannuated 
counselor,  the  squaw,  and  the  little  child  that  clung  helplessly 
to  her  bosom.  Of  all  who  were  in  the  fort,  only  seven  were 
taken  captive,  and  about  the  same  number  escaped. 

Notwithstanding  their  victory,  the  English  forces  were  in 
no  very  enviable  situation.  Two  of  their  men  lay  dead  on 
the  field,  and  about  twenty  had  been  wounded.  The  surgeon 
had  been  left  at  Narragansett  bay  with  the  vessels,  and  by 

*  As  to  the  number  of  the  Pequots  who  perished  on  that  memorable  morning, 
authorities  widely  differ.  Mason,  the  chief  actor  in  the  transaction,  (whose  narra- 
tive of  the  expedition  we  have  generally  followed,)  says  "  six  or  seven  hundred  as 
some  of  them  confessed;"  Winthrop  puts  the  number  at  about  three  hundred. 
Brodhead,  at  six  himdred.  Trumbull,  at  five  or  six  hundred.  Underbill,  at 
four  hundred,  &c. 


64  HISTORY  OF  CONNECTICUT. 

some  misunderstanding  had  not  arrived  to  attend  upon  such 
as  needed  his  services.  Nearly  ail  the  provisions,  and  other 
comforts  required  by  men  exhausted  and  wounded,  were  also 
on  board  the  vessels.  Without  provisions,  one  quarter  of  his 
men  disabled,  in  the  midst  of  a  country  unknown  to  him,  but 
familiar  to  his  enemies,  within  a  short  distance  of  the  fort  of 
Sassacus,  who  had  around  him  hundreds  of  fierce  warriors, 
his  ships  far  away,  and  his  powder  and  ball  almost  spent. 
Mason  found  much  to  test  the  skill  of  a  leader,  and  to  call 
forth  his  courage. 

While  Rebating  what  measures  should  be  adopted,  it  was 
with  delight  that  he  saw  his  little  vessels,  their  sails  filled  with 
the  welcome  gale  that  blew  from  the  north-east,  gliding  into 
Pequot  harbor.  The  fainting  soldiers  hailed  them  with  joy, 
as  if  they  had  been  angels  sent  to  deliver  them. 

By  this  time,  the  news  of  the  destruction  that  had  fallen 
upon  his  tribe  at  Mistick,  heralded,  no  doubt,  not  only  by  the 
handful  of  men  who  had  escaped  from  the  fort,  and  by  the 
clouds  of  smoke  that  floated  from  the  fatal  scene,  but  by  the 
dismal  cries  that  attended  this  exterminating  sacrifice,  had 
reached  the  fort  of  Sassacus,  and  three  hundred  warriors 
came  rushing  towards  the  English  with  the  determination  to 
avenge  themselves  for  an  injury  not  yet  half  revealed  to  them. 
Mason  led  out  a  file  of  his  best  marksmen,  who  soon  gave 
the  Pequots  a  check.  Seeing  that  they  could  not  stand  his 
fire,  he  commenced  his  march  toward  Pequot  harbor.  Of 
the  twenty  wounded  men,  four  or  five  were  so  disabled  that 
it  was  necessary  to  employ  about  twenty  other  men  to  carry 
them  ;  so  that  he  had  but  about  forty  men  who  could  engage 
in  battle,  until  he  succeeded  in  hiring  some  Indians  to  take 
charge  of  the  wounded.  They  had  marched  about  a  quarter 
of  a  mile,  when  the  Pequot  warriors,  who  had  withdrawn  out 
of  the  range  of  their  muskets,  reached  the  spot  where,  not 
two  hours  before,  their  fort  had  sheltered  so  much  that  was 
sacred  to  them.  When  they  came  to  the  top  of  the  hill,  ven- 
erable to  them  from  so  many  associations  connected  with  the 
history  and  glory  of  their  tribe — when  they  saw  the  smoking 


[1637.]  MASON  EETUENS  TO   HARTFORD.  65 

palisades,  the  flames  of  their  wigwams,  not  yet  extinguished, 
the  blackened  bodies  that  lay  scattered  where  death  had 
overtaken  them — in  their  grief  and  rage,  they  stamped  upon 
the  ground,  tore  the  hair  from  their  heads,  and  then  rushed 
madly  down  the  hill,  as  if  they  would  have  swept  the  enemy 
from  the  face  of  the  earth.  Captain  Underbill,  with  a  file  of 
the  bravest  men,  was  ordered  to  defend  the  rear.  This  he 
did  with  such  efficiency  that  the  Indians  were  soon  com- 
pelled to  fall  back.  Yet  such  was  their  resolve  to  have  their 
revenge  upon  the  English  that,  during  their  march  for  the 
next  six  miles,  they  pursued  them,  sometimes  hanging  on 
their  rear,  sometimes  hidden  behind  trees  or  rocks  in  front, 
discharging  their  arrows  in  secret,  at  others,  making  desper- 
ate attacks,  that  could  be  repelled  only  by  the  too  deadly  use 
of  the  musket.  They  fought  at  fearful  odds,  as  was  evinced 
by  the  dead  bodies  of  their  warriors  picked  up  by  the  Mohe- 
gans  who  followed  in  their  train,  while  not  an  Englishman 
was  injured  during  the  whole  line  of  their  march.  At  last, 
wearied  with  a  pursuit  that  only  brought  harm  to  themselves, 
they  abandoned  it,  and  left  the  English  to  continue  their 
march  unmolested,  with  their  colors  flying,  to  Pequot  harbor. 
Here  they  were  received  on  board  their  vessels  with  many 
demonstrations  of  joy. 

In  about  three  weeks  from  the  day  when  the  army  em- 
barked at  Hartford,  to  go  upon  this  uncertain  and  dangerous 
enterprise,  they  returned  to  their  homes,  where  the  kindest 
congratulations  awaited  them. 

5 


CHAPTER  III. 

PROSECUTION  OE  THE  PEQUOT  WAE. 

The  Pequots,  who  had  gone  out  to  view  the  scene  of  the 
fatal  conflagration  at  Mistick,  and  who  had  sought  in  vain  to 
avenge  it  upon  the  heads  of  its  authors,  now  returned  to  the 
principal  fort,  and  told  to  Sassacus  the  details  of  the  dismal 
story,  as  they  had  been  able  to  gather  it  from  the  too  certain 
indications  that  still  remained.  Their  reverence  for  him,  no 
longer  kept  them  aloof  from  him.  From  having  been  his 
most  abject  servants,  they  now  became  his  accusers.  They 
charged  it  upon  his  arrogance  and  ambition,  that  his  subjects 
had  revolted  and  had  called  in  to  aid  their  rebellion,  such  ter- 
rible allies  as  the  English  were,  with  weapons  that  resembled 
the  thunder  and  the  lightning,  who  went  upon  the  sea,  and 
who  made  use  of  fii'e  to  execute  their  wrath.  They  said  the 
ruin  of  the  whole  tribe  would  soon  follow.  They  said  that 
he  merited  death,  and  they  would  kill  him.  Indeed,  it  is 
probable  that  they  would  have  done  so,  had  not  the  counselors 
of  the  chief  interposed  with  mild  words  to  calm  the  excited 
passions  of  the  warriors.  They  consented  to  spare  his  life, 
but  the  spell  of  his  influence  over  them  was  broken  forever. 
He  had  ceased  to  be  "  all  one  god,"  from  the  moment  that  it 
became  known  how  inadequate  he  was  to  protect  his  people 
from  the  English.  A  consultation  was  now  held  of  the  most 
solemn  character.  What  should  be  done  ?  Should  they 
remain  in  the  fort,  and  be  exposed  to  the  fate  that  had  awaited 
their  brothers  at  Mistick,  or  should  they  imitate  the  example 
of  their  enemies,  and  commit  this  their  old  retreat,  and  its 
royal  wigwams  and  high  palisades,  to  the  flames,  and  then 
seek  the  fastnesses  of  the  rocks  and  cedar  swamps  for  a  last 
refuge  ?  It  was  with  a  bitter  struggle  that  they  finally  re- 
solved to  burn  the  fort,  and  thus  help  to  blot  out  the  Pequot 
name.     They  burned  it  to  ashes  with  their  own  hands,  and, 


[1637.]  MASON  FOLLOWS  SASSACUS.  67 

in  little  companies,  as  they  could  best  agree  to  assort  them- 
selves, they  fled  into  the  most  inaccessible  hiding-places. 
Sassacus,  Mononotto,  and  about  eighty  of  his  friends  and 
braves,  making  up  the  proudest  of  the  tribe,  who  preferred  to 
die  rather  than  desert  their  chief  in  his  misfortune,  set  their 
faces  toward  the  west,  and  fled  for  their  lives. 

Meanwhile  Roger  Williams,  always  the  good  angel  of  those 
who  persecuted  him,  sent  an  Indian  runner  to  Boston  with 
the  tidings  that  Connecticut  had  gained  a  victory  over  the 
Pequots  at  Mistick. 

The  governor  and  council  of  the  Massachusetts,  resolved  to 
follow  up  Mason's  success,  sent  forward  with  all  haste  one  hun- 
dred and  twenty  men,  under  the  command  of  Mr.  Stoughton, 
with  instructions  to  prosecute  the  war,  even  to  the  destruction 
of  the  Pequot  name.  The  famous  Mr.  Wilson  of  Boston  went 
with  the  army  as  chaplain.  They  reached  Pequot  harbor 
late  in  June,  and  soon  found  a  party  of  the  Indians,  where 
they  had  secreted  themselves  in  a  swamp.  They  took  eighty 
captives  there — fifty  women  and  children,  whom  they  spared, 
and  thirty  men,  every  one  of  whom  they  killed  with  the  ex- 
ception of  the  sachems,  whom  they  saved  on  their  promising 
to  conduct  them  to  Sassacus. 

In  June,  the  Connecticut  court  met  at  Hartford,  and 
ordered  that  forty  men  should  be  raised,  and  put  under  the 
command  of  Mason,  to  carry  on  the  war.*  The  wise  Ludlow, 
and  several  of  the  principal  gentlemen  of  the  colony,  went 
along  with  the  party  as  advisers,  for  by  this  time  the  court 
had  learned  the  folly  of  tying  up  Mason  by  the  terms  of  a 
commission.  They  soon  joined  the  Massachusetts  men,  under 
Stoughton,  at  Pequot  harbor.  A  council  of  war  was  held, 
and  it  was  resolved  to  follow  Sassacus  in  his  flight  toward 
Hudson  river.  They  soon  found  traces  of  the  enemy.  It 
was  evident  from  the  close  proximity  to  one  another  of  the 
rendezvous,  where  the  Pequots  spent  the  night,  that  they 
marched  at  a  slow  pace,  and  had  their  women,  children,  and 
movable  property  with  them.     The  smoke  that  arose  from 

*  J.  H.  Trumbull's  Colonial  Records,  i.  10, 


68  HISTORY   OF  CONKECTICDT. 

their  fires,  the  prints  of  their  fingers  in  the  woods,  where  they 
had  dug  up  the  earth  to  search  for  roots  to  quell  the  cravings 
of  hunger,  and  the  marks  that  the  tides  had  not  obliterated 
where  they  had  searched  for  clams  in  the  wet  sea  sand,  render- 
ed it  no  difficult  task  to  pursue  them.  But  the  Pequots  were 
scattered  into  so  many  parties,  that  it  was  impossible  for  the 
English  to  tell  from  these  doubtful  signs  whether  they  were 
on  the  trail  of  Sassacus  or  of  some  petty  chief.  At  last,  in 
this  perplexity,  they  summoned  the  sachems  taken  by  Stough- 
ton  at  Pequot  harbor,  who  had  been  spared  under  the  prom- 
ise of  pointing  out  the  trail  of  the  great  chief,  and  called  upon 
them  to  redeem  their  pledge.  But  they  refused  to  give  in- 
formation against  him,  and  were  put  to  death.*  The  place 
where  this  too  summary  execution  took  place  was  within  the 
limits  of  the  present  town  of  Guilford,  where  the  land,  rising 
into  a  bluff,  afl^ords  a  grateful  elevation  for  the  sea-breezes 
that  have  long  tempted  the  lovers  of  cool  summer  nights 
and  good  cheer  to  take  up  a  temporary  abode.  It  still  bears 
the  name  of  "  Sachem's  Head."  A  part  of  the  army,  guided 
by  Uncas  and  some  of  his  Indians,  marched  along  the  shore 
within  sight  of  the  vessels,  that  hovered  as  near  them  as  the 
nature  of  the  coast  would  allow.  When  they  reached  Quin- 
nipiack,  now  New  Haven,  they  saw  a  great  smoke  curling 
up  through  the  trees,  and  hoped  to  find  the  fugitives  near  at 
hand.  But  the  fires,  they  soon  found,  had  been  kindled  by 
the  Connecticut  river  Indians. 

Here  was  a  good  harbor,  and  as  the  march  through  the 
woods  had  proved  toilsome,  and  had  resulted  in  nothing,  the 
English  all  went  on  board  the  vessels.  Here  they  stayed 
several  days,  in  doubt  what  they  would  do,  and  waiting  for 
the  return  of  a  Pequot,  who  had  been  sent  forward  to  spy 
out  the  enemy.     At  last  he  returned,  and  reported  that  Sas- 

*  Drake,  in  his  History  of  Boston,  p.  216,  names  Mononotto  as  one  of  the  sa- 
chems beheaded  at  this  time.  Trumbull,  however,  mentions  him  as  one  of  the 
survivors  of  the  "  swamp  fight,"  which  took  place  several  days  after  ;  adding,  that 
he  was  one  of  the  twenty  who  fled  to  the  Mohawks,  all  of  whom  were  slain  by  the 
Mohawks,  "  except  Mononotto,  who  was  wounded,  but  made  his  escape." 


[1637.]  THE   SWAMP  FIGHT.  69 

sacus  and  his  party,  were  secreted  in  a  swamp  a  few  miles 
to  the  westward. 

The  English  were  soon  on  the  trail.  They  found  the 
swamp  without  difficulty.  It  was  situated  within  the  limits 
of  the  old  town  of  Fairfield.  In  this  swamp  were  hidden 
about  eighty  Pequot  warriors,  with  their  women  and  children, 
and  about  two  hundred  other  Indians.  A  dismal,  miry  bog 
it  was,  covered  with  tangled  bushes.  Dangerous  as  it  was, 
Lieutenant  Davenport  rushed  into  it  with  his  men,  eager  to 
encounter  the  Pequots. 

The  sharp  arrows  of  the  enemy  flew  from  places  that  hid 
the  archers,  wounding  the  soldiers  who,  in  their  haste  to  retreat, 
only  sunk  deeper  in  the  mire.  The  Indians,  made  bold  by 
this  adventure,  pressed  hard  upon  them,  and  would  have  car- 
ried off  their  scalps,  had  it  not  been  for  the  timely  aid  of  some 
other  Englishmen,  who  waded  into  the  swamp,  sword  in  hand, 
drove  back  the  Pequots,  and  drew  their  disabled  friends  from 
the  mud  that  had  threatened  to  swallow  them  up.  The 
swamp  was  now  surrounded,  and  a  skirmish  followed  that 
proved  so  destructive  to  the  savages,  that  the  Fairfield  Indi- 
ans begged  for  quarter.  They  said,  what  was  probably  true, 
that  they  were  there  only  by  accident,  and  had  never  done 
the  English  any  harm — and  that  they  only  wished  for  the 
privilege  of  withdrawing  from  the  swamp,  and  leaving  the 
Pequots  to  fight  it  out. 

Thomas  Stanton,  who  knew  their  language,  was  sent  into 
the  swamp  with  instructions  to  ofl^er  life  to  all  the  Indians 
who  had  shed  no  English  blood.  When  the  Sachem  of  the 
Fairfield  Indians  learned  the  terms  proposed  by  Stanton,  he 
came  out  of  the  swamp  followed  by  little  parties  of  men,  wo- 
men, and  children.  He  and  his  Indians,  he  said,  had  shed  no 
English  blood.  But  the  Pequot  warriors,  made  up  of  choice 
men,  and  burning  with  rage  against  the  enemy  who  had 
destroyed  their  tribe  and  driven  them  from  their  old  haunts, 
fought  with  such  desperate  bravery,  that  the  English  were 
glad  to  confine  themselves  to  the  border  of  the  swamp. 

There  now  sprang  up  a  controversy  among  the  officers, 


70  HISTORY  OF  COKiTECTICUT. 

as  to  the  best  mode  of  annihilating  this  little  handful  of 
Pequots.  Some  advised  that  they  should  plunge  into  the 
swamp,  and  there  fight  them.  But  the  experiment  of  Daven- 
port discouraged  others  from  so  foolhardy  a  course.  Others 
suggested  that  they  should  cut  down  the  swamp  with  the 
hatchets  that  they  had  brought  with  them ;  others,  that  they 
should  surround  it  with  palisades.  Neither  of  these  proposi- 
tions was  adopted.  They  finally  hit  upon  a  plan  that  was 
more  easily  executed.  They  cut  down  the  bushes  that  grew 
upon  a  little  neck  of  firm  upland,  that  almost  divided  the 
swamp  into  two  parts.  In  this  way,  they  so  lessened  the  area 
occupied  by  the  Pequots  that,  by  stationing  men  twelve  feet 
apart,  it  could  all  be  surrounded  by  the  troops.  This  was 
done,  and  the  sentinels  all  stationed,  before  nightfall.  Thus 
keeping  w'atch  on  the  borders  of  the  morass,  wet,  cold,  and 
weary,  the  soldiers  passed  the  night  under  arms.  Just  before 
day,  a  dense  fog  arose,  that  shrouded  them  in  almost  total 
darkness.  A  friendly  mist  it  proved  to  the  Pequots,  for  it 
doubtless  saved  the  lives  of  many  of  them.  At  a  favorable 
moment  they  rushed  upon  the  English.  Captain  Patrick's 
quarters  were  first  attacked,  but  he  drove  them  back  more 
than  once.  Their  yells,  more  terrible  from  the  darkness  that 
engulfed  the  scene  of  the  conflict,  were  so  unearthly  and 
appalling,  the  attack  was  so  sudden  and  so  well  sustained, 
that,  but  for  the  timely  interference  of  a  party  sent  by  Mason 
to  relieve  him,  Patrick  would  doubtless  have  been  driven 
from  his  station  or  cut  in  pieces.  The  siege  had  by  this  time 
given  place  to  a  hand-to-hand  fight.  As  Mason  was  himself 
marching  up  to  aid  Patrick,  the  Pequots  rushed  upon  him 
from  the  thicket.  He  drove  them  back  with  severe  loss. 
They  did  not  resume  the  attack  upon  the  man  who  had  re- 
cently given  them  such  fearful  proofs  of  his  prowess  ;  but 
turned  upon  Patrick,  broke  through  his  ranks,  and  fled.  About 
sixty  of  the  Pequot  warriors  escaped.  Twenty  lay  dead  upon 
the  field.  One  hundred  and  eighty  were  taken  prisoners. 
Most  of  the  property  that  this  fugitive  remnant  of  the  tribe 
had  attempted  to  carry  with  them,  fell  into  the  hands  of  the 


[1637.]       SASSACUS  BEHEADED   BY  THE   MOHAWKS.  71 

English.  Hatchets  of  stone,  beautiful  wampum-belts,  pol- 
ished bows,  and  feathered  arrows,  with  the  utensils  employed 
by  the  women  in  their  rude  domestic  labors,  became  at  once, 
as  did  the  women  themselves,  the  property  of  the  conquerors. 
The  captives  and  the  booty  were  divided  between  Massa- 
chusetts and  Connecticut.  Some  were  sent  by  Massachu- 
setts to  the  West  Indies,  and  there,  as  slaves,  dragged  out  a 
wretched,  yet  brief  existence.  Among  the  captives  taken  in 
this  battle,  was  the  wife  of  Mononotto  and  her  children. 
With  much  dignity,  she  begged  them  to  save  her  honor  in- 
violate and  to  spare  her  life  and  that  of  her  offspring.  She 
had  been  kind  to  the  girls  who  had  been  taken  from  Weth- 
ersfield,  and  for  this  she  and  her  little  ones  were  recommended, 
not  in  vain,  to  the  mercy  of  the  governor  of  Massachusetts.* 

Those  who  fell  to  the  colony  of  Connecticut  found  their 
condition  more  tolerable.  Some  of  them,  it  is  true,  spent 
their  days  in  servitude  ;  yet  its  rigors  softened  as  the  horrors 
of  the  war  faded  from  the  recollections  of  the  English.  Sas- 
sacus  seems  not  to  have  been  present  at  this  battle.  Foiled 
and  discomfitted  at  every  turn,  he  fled  far  to  the  westward, 
and  sought  a  refuge  among  the  enemies  of  his  tribe,  the  Mo- 
hawks. But  he  looked  in  vain  for  protection  at  their  hands. 
He  had  defied  them  in  his  prosperity,  and  in  his  evil  days 
they  avenged  themselves.  They  beheaded  him,  and  sent  his 
scalp  as  a  trophy  to  Connecticut.  A  lock  of  his  black,  glossy 
hair  was  carried  to  Boston  in  the  fall  of  the  same  year,  as  a 
witness  that  the  proud  sachem  of  the  Pequots  was  no  more  1 

On  the  21st  of  September,  Uncas  and  Miantinomoh,  with 
the  remaining  Pequots,  met  the  magistrates  of  Connecticut 
at  Hartford.  About  two  hundred  of  the  vanquished  tribe 
still  survived.  A  treaty  was  then  entered  into  between  Con- 
necticut, the  Mohegans,  and  the  Narragansetts.  By  its  terms, 
there  was  to  be  perpetual  peace  between  these  two  tribes  and 

*  The  scene  of  this  famous  "  swamp  fight "  lies  on  the  borders  of  Long  Island 
sound,  about  thi-ee  miles  from  Greenfield  Hill,  in  the  town  of  Fairfield.  President 
Dwight,  (who  celebrated  the  battle  in  his  poem,  "  Greenfield  Hill,")  states,  in  the 
preface  of  that  work,  that  the  "  swamp  "  was  at  that  time  a  beautiful  field. 


72  HISTOEY  OF  CONNECTICUT. 

the  English.  If  the  subjects  of  either  tribe  did  wrong  to 
those  of  the  other,  the  injured  party  promised  not  to  take 
summary  justice  into  its  own  hands,  but  to  appeal  to  the 
English.  Then,  with  imposing  ceremonials,  the  magistrates 
divided  the  remnant  of  the  Pequots  among  the  Narragansetts 
and  Mohegans.  To  Uncas,  their  favorite,  they  gave  one 
hundred,  to  Miantinomoh  eighty,  and  twenty  to  Ninigret. 
These  poor  creatures,  thus  given  over  to  their  enemies  and 
subjected  to  their  bitterest  taunts,  were  to  be  called  Pequots 
no  more,  nor  were  they  ever  to  dwell  again  in  their  old 
haunts,  or  pay  their  wonted  visits  to  the  burial-places  of  their 
dead,  or  meet  on  festal  days  to  revive  the  traditions  of  their 
people  around  the  embers  of  the  council  fire. 

The  thoughtful  reader  may  feel  disposed  to  ask  us,  if  we 
can  justify  the  story  that  we  have  told  with  such  painful 
minuteness.  We  answer,  that  such  a  war  should  never  have 
been  begun.  The  expedition  of  Endicott,  the  primary  cause 
of  this  war,  was  ill  advised,  and  carried  on  in  defiance  of  the 
wishes  of  Connecticut.  But,  after  the  horrid  murders  that 
were  committed  by  the  Pequots,  the  sequel  of  this  unhappy 
aflTair,  Connecticut  was  compelled  to  take  the  field.  The  war 
was  then  one  of  extermination,  for  the  enraged  Pequot  would 
give  no  quarter  to  the  English.  Some  lineaments  of  the  cam- 
paign are  harsh  and  repulsive.  Most  gladly  would  we  soften 
them  with  more  delicate  tints.  But  the  features  of  truth  have 
often  a  sharp,  stern  outline,  as  had  the  characters  of  those 
unflinching  men,  the  fathers  of  New  England,  who  struck 
down  their  enemies  as  they  felled  their  forest  trees,  aiming 
at  every  blow  of  the  axe  at  the  annihilation  of  the  wilder- 
ness. The  roots  of  the  brave  old  woods  they  could  not  at 
once  destroy.  A  few  years  sent  up  a  new  growth,  with 
fresh  leaves,  to  wave  in  the  breath  of  summer,  and  ripen 
beneath  the  August  sun.  But  no  new  race  of  men  sprung 
up  to  fill  the  places  of  the  crushed  and  desolate  Pequots.  Let 
the  reader  decide  the  question  of  guilt  or  innocence  as  best 
he  may  ;  but  let  him  not  forget  to  weigh  against  the  fate  of 
the  Indians  the  atrocities  that  they  had  perpetrated,  and  the 


[1637.]  CLOSE   OF  THE   PEQUOT  "WAR.  73 

horror  inspired  by  their  war  whoops  as  they  mingled  at  night 
with  the  howl  of  the  wolf  around  the  farmer's  dwelling.  Let 
him  also  bear  in  mind  how  much  the  last  two  centuries  have 
done  to  modify  the  rules  of  war  and  the  social  and  political 
relations  of  the  world.  In  this  way  he  will  be  able  to  adjust 
the  scales  between  the  contending  parties,  in  a  struggle  not 
so  much  for  dominion  as  for  a  national  existence. 


CHAPTER  IV. 

THE  FIEST  AMERICAN  CONSTITUTION. 

Civil  liberty,  as  Christian  nations  understand  the  term, 
seems  to  have  had  its  seeds  first  sown  with  a  liberal  hand  in 
England.  But  England,  with  all  her  health  and  vigor,  bor- 
rowed from  the  feudalism  of  the  continent,  during  the  early 
and  middle  ages,  many  a  constitutional  taint,  that  showed  it- 
self in  the  blood  of  the  state,  and  sometimes  threatened  it 
with  a  speedy  dissolution.  The  struggle  between  the  villein 
and  his  lord — the  oppressive  power  of  the  great  barons — 
their  disregard  of  the  interests  of  the  lower  orders — their 
bloody  wars,  waged  to  make  and  unmake  kings — kept  her  in 
a  state  of  almost  perpetual  unrest  for  centuries.  There,  too, 
the  religious  sentiment,  long  meditating  the  mild  studies  of 
the  scholar  and  the  doctrines  of  the  Prince  of  Peace,  in  the 
depths  of  the  cloister,  was  roused  by  the  blast  of  the  clarion 
to  follow  the  wildest  of  priests  and  the  most  romantic  of 
kings  to  the  wars  of  the  Holy  Sepulchre,  and  often  kindled 
to  acts  of  violence  at  home  that  have  left  marks  still  visible 
in  every  part  of  the  island. 

But,  by  slow  degrees,  often  repulsed,  and  still  gathering  its 
forces  anew,  popular  constitutional  liberty  gained  ground. 
By  a  union  of  the  people  with  the  crown,  the  barons  were 
subdued,  and  the  kingly  prerogative  itself  was  at  length  con- 
fined to  fixed  channels.  Sometimes,  indeed,  swollen  by  the 
strong  passions  of  some  imperious  monarch  like  Henry  VIII., 
it  broke  over  its  banks,  and  spread  a  temporary  desolation 
among  the  people ;  but  the  waters  soon  subsided  into  their 
calm  and  regular  flow.  But  Henry  VIII.  was  an  exception 
to  all  rules.  It  is  not  often  that  a  nation  is  governed  by  a 
monarch  of  such  scholastic  attainments,  such  intellectual  en- 
dowments, such  a  strong  and  marked  individuality,  and  such 


HENRY  VIII.  75 

an  imperious  will.  Never  did  a  prince  come  to  the  throne 
with  more  flattering  anticipations.  A  handsome  person,  a 
bold  and  gallant  manner,  a  full  exchequer,  an  undoubted  title, 
all  contributed  to  swell  the  popular  shouts  that  hailed  him 
king.  With  all  these  advantages,  Henry  was  almost  totally 
devoid  of  moral  culture.  He  was  also  the  victim  of  the  most 
insatiate  passions.  It  is  idle  to  call  him  a  Protestant,  in  any 
such  sense  as  the  term  was  understood  in  his  day,  or  in  that 
of  his  daughter  Elizabeth.  So  far  was  he  from  being  so,  that 
he  himself  wrote  what  he  called  a  refutation  of  Luther's 
tenets,  in  Latin,  for  which  he  was  honored  by  Leo  X.  with 
the  title  of  "  Defender  of  the  Faith."  Nor  is  there  any  reason 
to  suppose  that  he  would  have  ever  broken  away  from  the 
Roman  see,  had  he  not  been  enraged  at  the  excommunication 
that  followed  a  public  disclosure  of  his  secret  marriage  with 
Anne  Boleyn.  All  that  he  then  did  was  to  declare  himself 
the  "Head  of  the  English  Church."  Still  he  adhered  as 
closely  as  ever  to  the  theological  tenets  of  the  Roman  Cath- 
olic Church.  He  executed  Sir  Thomas  More  and  Bishop 
Fisher,  because  they  refused  to  take  the  oath  of  supi'emacy 
to  him,  and  at  the  same  time  caused  hundreds  of  reformers 
to  be  burned  at  the  stake.  The  cruel  and  barbarous 
destruction  of  the  religious  houses,  and  the  confiscation  of 
monastic  property,  in  1538,  the  expunging  of  the  sainted 
name  of  Thomas  a  Becket,  from  the  calendar,  and  the  burn- 
ing of  his  bones  to  ashes,  were  acts  of  violence  leveled  not 
against  the  Roman  Catholic  religion,  but  against  those  who 
dared  to  dispute  his  own  ecclesiastical  supremacy.  His  alli- 
ance with  Catherine  Howard  brought  him  still  more  imme- 
diately under  the  control  of  the  Catholic  party,  and  while  the 
new  queen  retained  his  favor  a  fearful  persecution  was  waged 
against  the  Protestants. 

If  he  ever  was  a  Protestant,  it  was  while  under  the  brief 
dominion  of  Catherine  Parr,  his  sixth  wife,  whose  heart  was 
touched,  though  she  dared  not  openly  avow  it,  with  the  dawn- 
ing beams  of  the  Reformation.  Even  this  secretly-cherished 
preference  had  well-nigh  proved  her  ruin.     That  the  king 


76  HISTORY   OF   CONNECTICUT, 

afterwards  forsook  his  old  friends,  does  not  evince,  that  I  am 
able  to  discover,  any  change  in  his  religious  tenets. 

All  this  while,  the  quick  leaven  of  the  "Reformation  was 
working  in  the  minds  of  the  English  people.  While  the 
monarch  was  busy  in  freeing  himself  from  the  burden  of  one 
queen,  only  to  become  entangled  in  the  toils  of  another, 
whose  glory,  alas,  was  to  be  equally  evanescent ;  while  he  was 
writing  that  darling  word  "  supremacy,"  in  characters  red 
with  the  blood  of  bishops  and  statesmen  adhering  to  their 
old  allegiance,  mingled,  too,  with  that  of  reformers,  whose 
pure  souls  were  breathed  forth  in  prayer,  that  the  sickle 
might  quickly  be  thrust  in  by  other  hands,  since  to  them  it 
was  denied  to  reap  the  whitened  harvest  field — all  this  while, 
a  large  portion  of  his  subjects,  in  the  words  of  an  English 
writer  second  to  none,  were  "casting  off  the  rags  of  their 
old  vices,"  and  were  reading  the  Bible  diligently  to  find  the 
spirit  and  the  form  of  the  primitive  church ;  the  spirit  first, 
after  that  the  form ;  the  weightier  matters  of  the  law,  after 
these,  tithes  of  mint  and  cummin.  By  this  party  I  mean  not 
the  Puritans  alone,  but  rather  the  Reformation  party,  embrac- 
ing the  high-born  and  the  lowly  of  every  rank  and  name,  who 
dared  for  themselves  to  search  the  Scriptures,  and  apply  to 
the  exposition  of  them  the  light  of  conscience  and  reason. 
This  party  was  never  able  to  make  head  against  the  self- 
willed  monarch,  but  it  grew  in  secret,  and  waited  for  his 
death  with  such  patience  as  a  fiery  zeal  is  able  to  command. 

With  his  death,  this  large  party,  made  up  of  those  who 
afterwards  fell  in  with  the  established  order  of  things  under 
Edward  VI.,  as  well  as  of  the  Puritans,  who  fled  from  the 
pursuit  of  bloody  Mary  into  Germany  and  Switzerland,  dared 
to  assert  its  claims  to  royal  notice,  and  those  claims  were 
for  a  brief  space  in  part  allowed.  During  the  mild  reign 
of  Edward  much  was  accomplished.  Articles  of  faith  were 
compiled,  that  in  later  years  served  as  the  basis  of  a  more 
complete  and  perfect  system.  In  this  reign,  too,  Cranmer 
and  Ridley  were  associated  with  other  divines  to  frame  a 
liturgy,  not  in  Latin,  but  in  the  vernacular  tongue.     The  first 


QUEEN"  ELIZABETH.  77 

part  of  the  homilies  also,  boldly  setting  forth  the  doctrines 
of  Christianity,  and  defining  with  more  certainty  the  then 
unsettled  landmarks  of  the  Protestant  faith,  were  published 
under  the  same  monarch. 

But  the  mild  reign  of  Edward  and  the  fierce  persecutions 
of  Mary  soon  passed  away.  On  the  accession  of  Elizabeth 
to  the  throne,  this  large  liberal  party,  that  I  have  called  the 
Reformation  party,  became  severed,  never  to  be  united  again. 
The  queen,  retaining  in  her  mind  too  keen  a  remembrance 
of  her  own  dangers  and  sufferings  during  her  father's  and 
sister's  reign,  ever  to  commit  herself  cordially  to  the  arms 
of  the  Roman  Catholic  Church,  yet  wedded  by  the  very  state- 
liness  of  her  character  to  its  venerable  forms  of  prayer,  its 
lofty  chants,  its  respect  paid  to  externals,  and  the  hold  that 
it  had  upon  the  imagination,  dating  as  it  did  from  a  remote 
antiquity,  was  ready  to  adopt  sonae  middle  ground  between 
the  two  extremes  of  the  national  mind — some  safe  ground 
whez'e  the  more  conservative  elements  of  the  state  might 
blend  themselves  with  the  loyalty  still  inherent  in  the  hearts 
of  the  lower  orders — some  sacred  ground,  fit  for  a  shrine, 
where  the  sentiment  of  religion  and  that  of  patriotism 
might  dwell  together  under  the  protecting  shadow  of  the 
throne. 

Where  was  this  ground  of  union  ?  The  queen  was  proud — 
for  when  was  pride  absent  from  the  house  of  Tudor  ?  Yet 
in  her,  the  loftiest  pride  was  united  with  that  sturdy  sense, 
that  keen,  intuitive  vision,  that  characterized  her  noble  family, 
and  enabled  them  to  measure  the  English  people,  and  judge 
with  such  accuracy  how  far  they  might  push  the  royal  pre- 
rogative, and  note  the  line  of  foam  that  marked  the  danger- 
ous proximity  of  popular  breakers.  Besides,  stern  as  she  was, 
she  was  not  deaf  to  the  voice  of  those  softer  monitions  that  in 
perilous  times  whisper  of  weakness  and  danger  in  the  ear  of 
woman.  Proud  as  she  was,  thei'efore,  she  had  much  need  to 
consult  her  wisest  subjects.  I  can  not  impugn  the  motives  of 
this  high-toned  woman,  placed  as  she  was  upon  the  verge  of 
that  fearful  revolution  whose  swift  wheels  were  stayed  until 


78  HISTORY   OF   COZSriSrECTICUT. 

her  eyes  were  closed  in  death — I  can  not  blame  her  that  she 
was  not  endowed  with  a  prophetic  vision ;  nor  did  the  Puritans, 
whom  she  subjected  to  the  rigors  of  a  legislation  for  which 
she  was  to  a  degree  responsible,  though  they  complained  of 
her  severity,  ever  speak  of  her  in  terms  of  disrespect.  She 
took  counsel  of  the  most  profound  scholars  and  revered  pre- 
lates, as  well  as  of  that  circle  of  glorious  statesmen  and  phi- 
losophers that  have  made  her  name  and  era  forever  illustri- 
ous. Doubtless,  she  felt  an  honest  solicitude  to  place  the 
church  upon  its  original  basis,  and  doubtless  many  of  her 
advisers  offered  up  earnest  prayers  that  they  might  be  led  in 
the  right  way.  She,  and  those  who  acted  under  her,  did 
much  for  Christianity  and  the  Protestant  faith — more  than 
had  been  effected  under  any  monarch  who  had  gone  before 
her.  She  believed  that  the  church  and  state  were  united  in 
holy  bonds.  Had  she  contented  herself  with  suppressing 
factions ;  could  she  have  distinguished  between  those  who 
hated  and  those  who  sought  to  reform  the  abuses  of  the 
established  church — abuses  not  inherent  in  the  church,  but 
resulting  from  its  alliance  with  the  state,  that  have  since  been 
gradually  acknowledged  and  reformed — she  might  have  saved 
herself  many  cares,  and  her  people  many  deep  wrongs. 

Conformity,  even  in  points  that  had  long  been  carefully 
evaded,  a  most  rigid,  punctilious  conformity,  was  required.* 
Many  of  the  most  learned  of  the  clergy, f  alarmed  at  the  dis- 
regard paid  to  the  rights  of  individual  conscience,  fled  in  dis- 
may from  their  places,  to  avoid  the  most  severe  penalties. 
Some  flew  to  foreign  lands ;  others  took  refuge  in  the  forests 
and  caverns,  where  it  was  a  crime  not  only  for  them  to 
preach,  but  for  the  people  to  listen.  In  1583,  a  Court  of  High 
Commission  was  established,  to  search  out  and  suppress  non- 
conformities, clothed  with  powers  the  most  revolting  to  the 
spirit  of  men  brought  up  under  the  philosophic  rule  of  the 
common  law  of  England,  pronounced  by  Lord  Coke  to  be 
the  "perfection  of  human  reason."  Under  this  anomaly,  so 
foreign    to    the   British  constitution    that  Burleigh  did  not 

*  Neal's  Puritans,  i.  396.  +  Ilallam's  England,  i.  270. 


BIGOTRY  AND  PEESECUTION"  OF  THE  AGE.  79 

scruple  to  liken  it  to  the  Spanish  inquisition,*  such  outrages 
were  practiced  as  would  scarcely  be  credible,  did  not  the 
blood  of  its  victims  cry  out  to  us  from  the  ground.  Two 
men  were  hanged  for  distributing  Brown's  tract  on  the  right 
of  a  free  pulpit. f  Ten  years  after  that,  Barrow  and  Green- 
wood were  hanged  at  Tyburn  for  non -conformity. J  These 
violent  coercive  measures  quickened  the  growth  of  Puritan- 
ism. At  first  comprising  but  a  handful  of  obscure  men,  in  a 
few  years  it  numbered  many  thousands,  and  not  a  few  names 
that  have  since  made  the  world  echo  with  their  renown. 

The  union  of  England  and  Scotland,  under  James  I.,  was 
hailed  by  the  Puritans  as  the  harbinger  of  religious  liberty. 
But  the  king  soon  took  more  decided  grounds  against  them 
than  his  predecessor  had  done.  The  number  of  clergymen 
who  were  "  silenced,  imprisoned,  or  exiled,"  in  a  single  year, 
has  been  estimated  as  high  as  three  hundred. ||  Mad  with  the 
doctrine  that  attributed  to  kings  a  divine  right,  impatient  of 
all  opposition,  this  weak  monarch  evinced  his  hatred  toward 
this  now  large  and  respectable  portion  of  his  subjects,  by  acts 
of  severity,  and  language  unworthy  of  a  king.§  It  is  idle  to 
attempt  to  deny  these  facts,  authenticated  as  they  are  by  vast 
treasuries  of  English  record  evidence.  No  less  idle  is  it  to 
reiterate  the  charge,  equally  false,  that  Episcopacy  is  wholly 
responsible  for  them.  When  will  a  day  at  last  dawn  upon 
us,  of  a  light  pure  enough  to  dispel  the  mists  of  prejudice  and 
bigotry  that  hang  over  the  history  of  civil  and  religious  lib- 
erty in  England  ?  The  puritans  were  the  progressive  party. 
They  were  impatient  of  the  old  order  of  things,  just  as  the 
members  of  the  established  church  under  Elizabeth  had  them- 
selves a  few  years  before  been  opposed  to  the  order  of  things 
then  existing.  Both  these  parties  were  in  their  turn  perse- 
cuted.    Each  in  its  turn  was  denominated  radical  and  incen- 

*  Hallam's  England,  i.  271-273 ;  Strype's  Whitgift,  157. 

t  Strype's  Annals,  iii.  186  ;  Fuller's  Church  History,  b.  ix.  169. 

t  Strype's  Whitgift,  414  ;  Neal's  Puritans,  i.  526,  527. 

II  Calderwood,  Neal,  &c. 

§  Barlow's  Sum  and  Substance  of  the  Conf.  at  Hampden  Court,  83. 


80  HISTORY  OF   CONNECTICUT. 

diary ;  and  each  persecution,  though  inflamed  by  rehgious 
zeal,  was  essentially  political.  The  English  mind,  as  a  whole, 
was  not  then  prepared  for  entire  freedom  of  conscience. 
Those  who  were  in  power  were  timid  and  solicitous.  They 
deemed  every  step  taken  by  the  popular  party  as  an  en- 
croachment upon  their  own  limits,  that  they  were  called 
upon  to  check,  or  allow  themselves  ultimately  to  be  sup- 
planted. It  was  a  struggle  between  conservatism,  fortifying 
and  defending  herself,  and  progress,  advancing  to  drive  her 
from  her  position.  The  outrages  committed  against  the  puri- 
tans in  the  reigns  of  Elizabeth,  James,  and  Charles  I.,  on  the 
one  hand,  and  the  shocking  vindication  of  them  on  the  other, 
by  the  iron-handed  protector — a  vindication  revolting,  as 
well  from  the  blood  that  stained  its  grim  features,  as  from 
the  insults  so  shamelessly  offered  to  the  most  ancient  monu- 
ments of  British  glory,  and  the  destruction  of  the  most  sacred 
temples  and  shrines — evince  alike  the  wild  fermentation  out 
of  which  civil  and  religious  liberty  were  at  last  to  come. 
Both  these  parties,  when  dominant,  were  overbearing  and 
cruel ;  when  in  the  minority,  were  sadly  oppressed.  Each 
was  partly  right  and  partly  wrong ;  and  those  writers  furnish 
but  a  poor  commentary  upon  human  progress,  and  wretched 
evidence  of  that  freedom  of  conscience  which  is  the  boast 
of  our  age,  who  at  this  day  can  find  in  any  party  of  the 
sixteenth  or  seventeenth  centuries  an  expression  of  their 
ideal,  either  of  loveliness  or  perfection. 

The  puritans  then  were  driven  to  the  alternative  of  giving 
up  their  own  mode  of  worship,  and  taking  oaths  that  were 
repugnant  to  their  views  of  right ;  they  must  renounce  all 
political  honors  and  emoluments,  all  prospects  of  social  ad- 
vancement for  themselves  and  for  their  children  who  held  to 
the  same  belief,  and  remain  in  England  the  scoff  of  those  who 
found  it  popular  to  deride  them,  or  they  must  cast  about  them 
for  a  retreat,  not  straightened  and  accessible  like  the  forests 
and  caves  of  their  native  island,  where  in  vain  they  had 
sought  to  hide  themselves,  but  remote  and  open  for  the  em- 
ployment of  their  faculties  as  well  as  for  the  exercise  of  their 


CAUSES  OP  THE  EMIGRATION.  81 

religious  rites.  Some  of  them  fled  to  Germany,  some  to 
Holland,  and  lingered  there  till  this  species  of  self  exile  be- 
came too  painful  to  be  borne.  Then,  one  after  another,  sur- 
rounded by  his  little  flock,  many  a  clergyman,  who  had  been 
nursed  in  the  bosom  of  Oxford  or  Cambridge,  who  had  long 
sat  under  the  bowers  of  the  manse  and  eaten  of  the  fruits 
that  grew  upon  the  pleasant  glebe,  who  had  quickened  his 
steps  as  he  walked,  when  the  sweet  tones  of  his  church  bell 
warned  him  that  the  child  waited  at  the  font  to  be  signed 
with  the  mystic  sign,  made  ready  to  go  to  a  wild,  remote 
country,  where  he  might  be  free  from  oaths  save  such  as  he 
should  prescribe  for  himself,  where  he  might  pray  and  wor- 
ship by  no  formularies  save  such  as  he  might  choose. 

Right  or  wrong,  this  was  the  leading  motive.  But  other 
motives  doubtless  operated  with  greater  or  less  force  upon 
many  of  the  emigrants.  The  mind  of  the  old  world  was  then 
turned  toward  the  new.  The  various  rumors  that  were  rife 
in  England  with  regard  to  the  illimitable  extent  of  this  terri- 
tory, washed  by  the  waves  of  the  Atlantic  and  the  South  Sea, 
as  they  vaguely  denominated  the  Pacific  ocean,  from  its  very 
vastness,  took  a  strong  hold  of  the  imagination  ;  and  these  pu- 
ritans, stern  and  practical  as  they  were,  did  not  escape  the 
contagion.  There  were  also  stories  of  exciting  adventure  to 
stimulate  the  desires  of  the  young — visions  of  wealth,  from 
rich  acres  tamed  to  the  possession  and  uses  of  man,  or  from 
the  furs  of  wild  animals,  floated  in  the  dreams  of  the  prudent 
and  money-loving.  To  deny  that  the  puritans  alone  were 
free  from  the  promptings  of  motives  such  as  these,  is  to  claim 
for  them  what  they  never  arrogated  to  themselves.  They 
were  modest  men,  too  earnest  in  the  belief  that  they  were 
sinners,  ever  to  affix  to  themselves  the  attributes  of  God. 

After  their  arrival  here,  they  sought  (why  should  they  not  ?) 
to  avail  themselves  of  the  resources  of  nature.  Hence,  urged 
by  no  necessity,  but  simply  to  better  their  condition,  the 
fathers  of  Connecticut  left  the  Massachusetts  for  the  alluvial 
meadows  where  they  finally  estabhshed  themselves. 

I  have  thought  it  best  to  premise  thus  much  upon  the 


82  HISTORY  OF  CONNECTICUT. 

causes  that  led  to  the  settlement  of  Connecticut,  before  in- 
troducing to  the  reader's  notice  her  first  written  constitution, 
that  was  adopted  at  a  general  convention  of  all  the  planters 
at  Hartford,  on  the  14th  of  January,  1639. 

We  read  in  treatises  upon  elementary  law,  of  a  time  ante- 
cedent to  all  law,  when  men  are  theoretically  said  to  have 
met  together  and  surrer  dered  a  part  of  their  rights  for  a  more 
secure  enjoyment  of  the  remainder.  Hence,  we  are  told, 
human  governments  date  their  origin.  This  dream  of  the 
enthusiast  as  applied  to  ages  past,  in  Connecticut  for  the  first 
time  upon  the  American  soil  became  a  recorded  verity. 
Here,  at  least,  we  are  permitted  to  look  on  and  see  the  foun- 
dations of  a  political  structure  laid.  We  can  count  the  work- 
men, and  we  have  become  familiar  with  the  features  of  the 
master  builders.  We  see  that  they  are  most  of  them  men 
of  a  new  type.  Bold  men  they  are,  who  have  cut  loose  from 
old  associations,  old  prejudices,  old  forms ;  men  who  will 
take  the  opinions  of  no  man,  unless  he  can  back  them  up  with 
strong  reasons ;  clear-sighted,  sinewy  men,  in  whom  the  in- 
tellect and  the  moral  nature  predominate  over  the  more  deli- 
cate traits  that  mark  an  advanced  stage  of  social  life.  Such 
men  as  these  will  not,  however,  in  their  zeal  to  cast  off"  old 
dominions,  be  solicitous  to  free  themselves  and  their  posterity 
from  all  restraint ;  for  no  people  are  less  given  up  to  the  sway 
of  unbridled  passions.  Indeed,  they  have  made  it  a  main 
part  of  their  business  in  life  to  subdue  their  passions.  Laws, 
therefore,  they  must  and  will  have,  and  laws  that,  whatever 
else  they  lack,  will  not  want  the  merit  of  being  fresh  and 
original. 

As  it  has  been,  and  still  is,  a  much  debated  question,  what 
kind  of  men  they  were — some  having  over  praised,  and  others 
rashly  blamed  them — let  us,  without  bigotry,  try  if  we  can 
not  look  at  them  through  a  medium  that  shall  render  them 
to  us  in  all  their  essential  characteristics  as  they  were.  That 
medium  is  afforded  us  by  the  written  constitution  that  they 
made  of  their  own  free  will  for  their  own  government.  This 
is  said  to  give  the  best  portrait  of  any  people ;  though  in  a 


[1639.]  THE  FIEST  CONSTITUTIOISr.  83 

nation  that  has  been  long  maturing,  the  compromise  between 
the  past  and  present,  written  upon  almost  every  page  of  its 
history,  can  not  have  failed  in  some  degree  to  make  the  like- 
ness dim.  Yet,  of  such  a  people  as  we  are  describing,  who 
may  be  said  to  have  no  past — who  live  not  so  much  in  the 
present  as  in  the  future,  and  who  forge  as  with  one  stroke  the 
constitution  that  is  to  be  a  basis  of  their  laws — are  we  not 
provided  with  a  mirror  that  reflects  every  lineament  with  the 
true  disposition  of  light  and  shade  ?  If  it  is  a  stern,  it  is  yet 
a  truthful  mirror.  It  flatters  neither  those  who  made  it  nor 
those  blear-eyed  maskers,  who,  forgetful  of  their  own  dis- 
torted visages,  look  in  askance,  and  are  able  to  see  nothing 
to  admire  in  the  sober,  bright-eyed  faces  of  their  fathers  who 
gaze  down  upon  them  from  the  olden  time. 

The  preamble  of  this  constitution  begins  by  reciting  the 
fact  that  its  authors  are,  "  under  Almighty  God,"  inhabitants 
and  residents  of  Windsor,  Hartford,  and  Wethersfield,  upon 
"the  river  Connecticut."  It  also  states  that,  in  consonance 
with  the  word  of  God,  in  order  to  maintain  the  peace  and 
union  of  such  a  people,  it  is  necessary  that  "  there  should  be 
an  orderly  and  decent  government  esjtablished"  that  shall 
"  dispose  of  the  affairs  of  the  people  at  all.  seasons."  "  We  do 
therefore,"  say  they,  "associate  and  conjoin  ourselves  to  be 
as  one  public  state  or  commonwealth."  They  add,  further, 
that  the  first  object  aimed  at  by  them,  is  to  preserve  the  liberty 
and  the  purity  of  the  gospel  and  the  discipline  of  their  own 
churches ;  and,  in  the  second  place,  to  govern  their  civil 
affairs,  by  such  rules  as  their  written  constitution  and  the 
laws  enacted  under  its  authority  shall  prescribe.  To  provide 
for  these  two  objects,  the  liberty  of  the  gospel,  as  they  under- 
stood it,  and  the  regulation  of  their  own  civil  affairs,  they 
sought  to  embody  in  the  form  of  distinct  decrees,  substan- 
tially the  following  provisions  : 

1.  That  there  shall  be  every  year  two  general  assemblies 
or  courts,  one  on  the  second  Thursday  of  April,  the  other  on 
the  second  Thursday  of  September :  that  the  one  held  in 
April,  shall  be  called  the  Court  of  Election,  wherein  shall  be 


84  HISTORY  OP  CONNECTICUT. 

annually  chosen  the  magistrates,  (one  of  whom  shall  be  the 
governor,)  and  other  public  officers,  who  are  to  administer 
justice  according  to  the  laws  here  established ;  and  where 
there  are  no  laws  provided,  to  do  it  in  accordance  with  the 
laws  of  God  ;  and  that  these  rulers  shall  be  elected  by  all  the 
freemen  within  the  limits  of  the  commonwealth,  who  have 
been  admitted  inhabitants  of  the  towns  where  they  severally 
live,  and  who  have  taken  the  oath  of  fidelity  to  the  new 
state ;  and  that  they  shall  all  meet  at  one  place  to  hold  this 
election. 

2.  It  is  provided  that  after  the  voters  have  all  met  and  are 
ready  to  proceed  to  an  election,  the  first  officer  to  be  chosen 
shall  be  a  governor,  and  after  him  a  body  of  magistrates  and 
other  officers.  Every  voter  is  to  bring  in,  to  those  appointed 
to  receive  it,  a  piece  of  paper  with  the  name  of  him  whom 
he  would  have  for  governor  written  upon  it,  and  he  that  has 
the  greatest  number  of  papers  with  his  name  written  upon 
them,  was  to  be  governor  for  that  year.  The  other  magis- 
trates were  elected  in  the  following  manner.  The  names  of 
all  the  candidates  were  first  given  to  the  secretary  for  the 
time  being,  and  written  down  by  him,  in  the  order  in  which 
they  were  given  ;  the  secretary  was  then  to  read  the  list  over 
aloud  and  severally  nominate  each  person  whose  name  was 
so  written  down,  in  its  order,  in  a  distinct  voice,  so  that  all 
the  citizen  voters  could  hear  it.  As  each  name  was  read, 
they  were  to  vote  by  ballot,  either  for  or  against  it,  as  they 
liked  ;  those  who  voted  in  favor  of  the  nominee,  did  it  by 
writing  his  name  upon  the  ballot — those  who  voted  against 
him,  simply  gave  in  a  blank  ballot ;  and  those  only  were 
elected  whose  names  were  written  upon  a  majority  of  all  the 
paper  ballots  handed  in  under  each  nomination.  These 
papers  were  to  be  received  and  counted  by  sworn  officers, 
appointed  by  the  court  for  that  purpose.  Six  magistrates, 
besides  the  governor,  were  to  be  elected  in  this  way.  If  they 
failed  to  elect  so  many  by  a  majority  vote,  then  the  requisite 
number  was  to  be  filled  up,  by  taking  the  names  of  those  who 
had  received  the  highest  number  of  votes. 


[1639.]  THE   FIRST   CONSTITUTIOjST.  85 

3.  The  men  thus  to  be  nominated  and  balloted  for  were  to 
be  propounded  at  some  general  court,  held  before  the  court 
of  election,  the  deputies  of  each  town  having  the  privilege 
of  nominating  any  two  whom  they  chose.  Other  nomina- 
tions might  be  made  by  the  court. 

4.  No  person  could  be  chosen  governor  oftener  than  once 
in  two  years.  It  was  requisite  that  this  officer  should  be  a 
member  of  an  approved  congregation,  and  that  he  should  be 
taken  from  the  magistrates  of  the  commonwealth.  But  no 
qualification  was  required  in  a  candidate  for  the  magistracy, 
except  that  he  should  be  chosen  from  the  freemen.  Both 
governor  and  magistrates  were  required  to  take  a  solemn 
oath  of  office. 

5.  To  this  court  of  election  the  several  towns  were  to  send 
their  deputies,  and  after  the  elections  were  over,  the  court 
was  to  proceed,  as  at  other  courts,  to  make  laws,  or  do  what- 
ever was  necessary  to  further  the  interests  of  the  com- 
monwealth. 

6.  These  two  regular  courts  were  to  be  convened  by  the 
governor  himself,  or  by  his  secretary  by  sending  out  a  war- 
rant to  the  constables  of  every  town,  a  month  at  least  before 
the  day  of  session.  In  times  of  danger  or  public  exigency, 
the  governor  and  a  majority  of  the  magistrates,  might  order 
the  secretary  to  summon  a  court,  with  fourteen  days  notice, 
or  even  less,  if  the  case  required  it,  taking  care  to  state  their 
reasons  for  so  doing  to  the  deputies  when  they  met.  If,  on 
the  other  hand,  the  governor  should  neglect  to  call  the  regu- 
lar courts,  or,  with  the  major  part  of  the  magistrates,  should 
fail  to  convene  such  special  ones  as  were  needed,  then  the 
freemen,  or  a  major  part  of  them,  were  required  to  petition 
them  to  do  it.  If  this  did  not  serve,  then  the  freemen,  or  a 
majority  of  them,  were  clothed  with  the  power  to  order  the 
constables  to  summon  the  court — after  which  they  might 
meet,  choose  a  moderator,  and  do  any  act  that  it  was  lawful 
for  the  regular  courts  to  do. 

7.  On  receiving  the  warrants  for  these  general  courts,  the 
constables  of  each  town  were  to  give  immediate  notice  to  the 


86  HISTORY  OF  CONNECTICUT. 

freemen,  either  at  a  public  gathering  or  by  going  from  house 
to  house,  that  at  a  given  place  and  time  they  should  meet  to 
elect  deputies  to  the  General  Court,  about  to  convene,  and 
"  to  agitate  the  affairs  of  the  commonwealth."  These  depu- 
ties were  to  be  chosen  by  vote  of  the  electors  of  the  town 
who  had  taken  the  oath  of  fidelity  ;  and  no  man  not  a  free- 
man was  eligible  to  the  office  of  deputy.  The  deputies  were 
to  be  chosen  by  a  major  vote  of  all  the  freemen  present,  who 
were  to  make  their  choice  by  written  paper  ballots — each 
voter  giving  in  as  many  papers  as  there  were  deputies  to  be 
chosen,  with  a  single  name  written  on  each  paper.  The 
names  of  the  deputies  when  chosen  were  indorsed  by  the 
constables,  on  the  back  of  their  respective  warrants,  and  re- 
turned into  court. 

8.  The  three  towns  of  the  commonwealth  were  each  to 
have  the  privilege  of  sending  four  deputies  to  the  General 
Court.  If  other  towns  were  afterwards  added  to  the  jurisdic- 
tion, the  number  of  their  deputies  was  to  be  fixed  by  the 
court.  The  deputies  represented  the  towns,  and  could  bind 
them  by  their  votes  in  all  legislative  matters. 

9.  The  deputies  had  power  to  meet  after  they  were  chosen, 
and  before  the  session  of  the  General  Court,  to  consult  for  the 
public  good,  and  to  examine  whether  those  who  had  been  re- 
turned as  members  of  their  own  body,  were  legally  elected. 
If  they  found  any  who  were  not  so  elected,  they  might 
seclude  them  from  their  assembly,  and  return  their  names  to 
the  court,  with  their  reasons  for  so  doing.  The  court,  on 
finding  these  reasons  valid,  could  issue  orders  for  a  new  elec- 
tion, and  impose  a  fine  upon  such  men  as  had  falsely  thrust 
themselves  upon  the  towns  as  candidates. 

10.  Every  regular  general  court  was  to  consist  of  the  gov- 
ernor and  at  least  four  other  'magistrates,  with  the  major  part 
of  the  deputies  chosen  from  the  several  towns.  But  if  any 
court  happened  to  be  called  by  the  freemen,  through  the  default 
of  the  governor  and  magistrates,  that  court  was  to  consist  of 
a  majority  of  the  freemen  present,  or  their  deputies,  and  a 
moderator,  chosen  by  them.     In  the  General  Court  was  lodged 


[1639.]  THE  FIEST  CONSTITUTION.  87 

the  "supreme  power  of  the  commomvealth."  In  this  court, 
the  governor  or  moderator  had  power  to  command  liberty  of 
speech,  to  silence  all  disorders,  and  to  put  all  questions  that 
were  to  be  made  the  subject  of  legislative  action,  but  not  to 
vote  himself,  unless  the  court  was  equally  divided,  when  he 
was  to  give  the  casting  vote.  But  he  could  not  adjourn  or 
dissolve  the  court  without  the  major  vote  of  the  members. 
Taxes  also  were  to  be  ordered  by  the  court ;  and  when  they 
had  agreed  on  the  sum  to  be  raised,  a  committee  was  to  be 
appointed  of  an  equal  number  of  men  from  each  town  to 
decide  what  part  of  that  sum  each  town  should  pay.* 

This  first  written  constitution  of  the  new  world  was  simple 
in  its  terms,  comprehensive  in  its  policy,  methodical  in  its  ar- 
rangement, beautiful  in  its  adaptation  of  parts  to  a  whole,  of 
means  to  an  end.  Compare  it  with  any  of  the  constitutions 
of  the  old  world  then  existing.  I  say  nothing  of  those 
libels  upon  human  nature,  the  so-called  constitutions  of  the 
continent  of  Europe — compare  it  reverently,  as  children 
speak  of  a  father's  roof,  with  that  venerated  structure,  the 
British  constitution.  How  complex  is  the  architecture  of  the 
latter !  here  exhibiting  the  clumsy  handiwork  of  the  Saxon, 
there,  the  more  graceful  touch  of  later  conquerors  ;  the  whole 
colossal  pile,  magnificent  with  turrets  and  towers,  and  deco- 
rated with  armorial  devices  and  inscriptions,  written  in  a  lan- 
guage not  only  dead,  but  never  native  to  the  island;  all 
eloquent,  indeed,  with  the  spirit  of  ages  past,  yet  haunted 
with  the  cry  of  suffering  humanity,  and  the  clanking  of 
chains  that  come  up  from  its  subterranean  dungeons.  Mark, 
too,  the  rifts  and  seams  in  its  gray  walls — traces  of  convul- 
sion and  revolution.  Proud  as  it  is,  its  very  splendor  shows 
the  marks  of  a  barbarous  age.  _Its  tapestry  speaks  a  language 
dissonant  to  the  ears  of  freemen.  It  tells  of  exclusive  privi- 
leges, of  divine  rights,  not  in  the  people,  but  in  the  king,  of 
primogeniture,  of  conformities,  of  prescriptions,  of  serfs  and 
lords,  of  attainder  that  dries  up  like  a  leprosy  the  fountains 
of  inheritable  blood  ;  and  lastly,  it  discourses  of  the  rights  of 

*  J.  Hammond  Ti-umbull's  Colonial  Records,  i.  20. 


88  HISTORY  OP  CONNECTICUT. 

British  subjects,  in  eloquent  language,  but  sometimes  with 
qualifications  that  startle  the  ears  of  men  who  have  tasted 
the  sweets  of  a  more  enlarged  liberty.  Such  was  the  spirit  of 
the  British  constitution,  and  code  of  the  seventeenth  century. 
I  do  not  blame  it,  that  it  was  not  better ;  perhaps  it  could  not 
then  have  been  improved  without  risk.  Improvement  in  an 
old  state,  is  the  work  of  time.  But  I  have  a  right  to  speak 
with  pride  of  the  more  advanced  freedom  of  our  own. 

The  constitution  of  Connecticut  sets  out  with  the  practi- 
cal recognition  of  the  doctrine,  that  all  ultimate  power  is 
lodged  with  the  people.  The  body  of  the  people  is  the  body 
politic.  From  the  people  flow  the  fountains  of  law  and 
justice.  The  governor,  and  the  other  magistrates,  the  depu- 
ties themselves,  are  but  a  kind  of  committee,  with  delegated 
powers  to  act  for  the  free  planters.  Elected  from  their  num- 
ber, they  must  spend  their  short  official  term  in  the  discharge 
of  the  trust,  and  then  descend  to  their  old  level  of  citizen 
voters.  Here  are  to  be  no  interminable  parliaments.  The 
majority  of  the  General  Court  can  adjourn  it  at  will.  Nor  is 
there  to  be  an  indefinite  prorogation  of  the  legislature  at  the 
will  of  a  single  man.  Let  the  governor  and  magistrates  look 
to  it.  If  they  do  not  call  a  general  court,  the  planters  will 
take  the  matter  into  their  own  hands,  and  meet  in  a  body  to 
take  care  of  their  neglected  interests. 

One  of  the  most  striking  features  in  this  new,  and  at  that 
time  strange  document,  is,  that  it  will  tolerate  no  rotten-borough 
system.  Every  deputy,  who  goes  to  the  legislature,  is  to  go 
from  his  own  town,  and  is  to  be  a  free  planter  of  that  town. 
In  this  way  he  will  know  what  is  the  will  of  his  constituents, 
and  what  their  wants  are. 

This  paper  has  another  remarkable  trait.  There  is  to  be 
no  taxation  without  representation  in  Connecticut.  The 
towns,  too,  are  recognized  as  independent  municipalities. 
They  are  the  primary  centres  of -power,  older  than  the  con- 
stitution— the  makers  and  builders  of  the  State.  They  have 
given  up  to  the  State  a  part  of  their  ^corporate  powers,  as 
they  received  them  from  the  free  planters,  that  they  may 


[1639.]  THE  FIRST  CONSTITUTION".  89 

have  a  safer  guarantee  for  the  keeping  of  the  rest.  What- 
ever they  have  not  given  up,  they  hold  in  absolute  right. 

How  strange,  too,  that,  in  defining  so  carefully  and  astutely 
the  limits  of  the  government,  these  constitution  makers  should 
have  forgotten  the  king.  One  would  not  suppose,  that  those 
who  indited  this  paper  were  even  aware  of  the  existence  of 
titled  majesty  beyond  what  belonged  to  the  King  of  kings. 
They  mention  no  supreme  power,  save  that  of  the  common- 
wealth, which  speaks  and  acts  through  the  General  Court.* 

Such  was  the  constitution  of  Connecticut.  I  have  said 
it  was  the  oldest, of^the  American  constitutions.  More  than 
this,  I  might  say,  it  is  the  mother  of  them  all.  It  has  been 
modified  in  different  states  to  suit  the  circumstances  of  the 
people,'ismd  the  size  of  their  respective  territories ;  but  the 
representative  system  peculiar  to  the  American  republics, 
was  first  unfolded  by  Ludlow,  (who  probably  drafted  the  con- 
stitution of  Connecticut,)  and  by  Hooker,  Haynes,  Wolcott, 
Steele,  Sherman,  Stone,  and  the  other  far-sighted  men  of  the 
colony,  who  must  have  advised  and  counseled  to  do,  what 
they  and  all  the  people  in  the  three  towns  met  together  in  a 
mass  to  sanction  and  adopt  as  their  own.  Let  me  not  be 
understood  to  say,  that  I  consider  the  framers  of  this  paper 
perfect  legislators,  or  in  all  respects  free  from  bigotry  and  in- 
tolerance. How  could  they  throw  off  in  a  moment  the 
shackles  of  custom  and  old  opinion  ?  They  saw  more  than 
two  centuries  beyond  their  own  era.  England  herself  at  this 
day  has  only  approximated,  without  reaching,  the  elevated  table- 

*  See  Rev.  Leonard  Bacon's  discourse  on  the  Early  Constitutional  History  of  Con- 
necticut, p.  5.  See,  also,  Rev.  Dr.  Ilawes'  Centennial  Address,  which  points  out 
with  great  clearness  and  ability  the  distinct  features  of  this  document.  Examine, 
too,  Rev.  Dr.  Bushnell's  "  Historical  Estimate,"  which  should  be  read  by  all 
those  unworthy  sons  of  Connecticut,  now  residents  here,  who  in  traveling  write 
themselves  down  upon  the  books  of  hotels,  as  citizens  of  Boston,  or  New  Tork. 
Such  wretches,  who,  in  the  language  of  Wordsworth,  would  "  botanize  upon  their 
mother's  grave,"  are  the  only  specks  that  need  to  be  washed  off  from  the  surface 
of  our  history.  However,  we  have  occasion  to  rejoice  that  they  do  not  indicate 
the  degeneracy  of  Connecticut,  as  it  is  believed  that  none  of  them  sprung  from 
the  early  families. 


90  HISTOEY  OF  CONNECTICUT. 

land  of  constitutional  freedom,  whose  pure  air  was  breathed 
by  the  earliest  planters  of  Connecticut.  Under  this  consti- 
tution they  passed,  it  is  true,  some  quaint  laws,  that  some- 
times provoke  a  smile,  and,  in  those  who  are  unmindful  of  the 
age  in  which  they  lived,  sometimes  a  sneer.  I  shall  speak  of 
these  laws  in  their  order,  I  hope  with  honesty  and  not  with  too 
much  partiality.  It  may  be  proper  to  say  here,  however,  that 
for  one  law  that  has  been  passed  in  Connecticut  of  a  bigoted 
or  intolerant  character,  a  diligent  explorer  into  the  English 
court  records  or  statute  books  for  evidences  of  bigotry,  and 
revolting  cruelty,  could  find  twenty  in  England.  "  Kings 
have  been  dethroned,"  says  Bancroft,  the  eloquent  Ameri- 
can historian,  "  recalled,  dethroned  again,  and  so  many  con- 
stitutions framed  or  formed,  stifled  or  subverted,  that  memory 
may  despair  of  a  complete  catalogue  ;  but  the  people  of 
Connecticut  have  found  no  reason  to  deviate  essentially 
from  the  government  as  established  by  their  fathers.  History 
has  ever  celebrated  the  commanders  of  armies  on  which 
victory  has  been  entailed,  the  heroes  who  have  won  laurels 
in  scenes  of  carnage  and  rapine.  Has  it  no  place  for  the 
founders  of  states,  the  wise  legislators  who  struck  the  rock 
in  the  wilderness,  and  the  waters  of  hberty  gushed  forth  in 
copious  and  perennial  fountains  ?" 


iVooU^lDMS'  IIDA"^IE53 


^"^      /J  a/i'^^A  cA^. 


CHAPTER  V. 


FOUNDING  OE  NEW  HAYEN  COLONY. 


It  has  been  found  necessary  to  depart  a  little  from  the 
order  of  events  as  they  transpired,  for  the  sake  of  a  more  dis- 
tinct arrangement.     Let  us  now  return. 

Although  one  powerful  enemy  had  been  subdued,  the  little 
commonwealth  was  threatened  by  others  almost  equally  for- 
midable. Early  in  November,  the  ground  was  hidden  with 
snow.  It  fell  to  a  great  depth  during  the  winter,  and  re- 
mained until  late  in  March.  A  second  time  the  people  were 
threatened  with  famine.  There  was  an  alarming  scarcity 
of  corn.  Mr.  Pyncheon  of  Agawam,  (now  Springfield,)  a 
gentleman  of  great  resources  and  tact,  was  deputed  by  the 
court  to  negotiate  with  the  Indians  for  this  then  indispensa- 
ble staple  of  human  food.  Mr.  Pyncheon  contracted  to  fur- 
nish five  hundred  bushels.  But  this  inconsiderable  quantity 
would  scarcely  keep  the  inhabitants  from  starvation  a  week, 
and  it  was  necessary  to  take  other  measures.  A  vessel  was 
dispatched  upon  the  same  errand  to  the  Narragansett  bay, 
but  it  would  seem  with  Httle  success,  for  it  soon  became 
necessary  to  look  further.  A  committee  was  finally  sent  to 
Pocomtock,  (Deerfield,)  where  there  was  a  large  Indian  vil- 
lage, and  such  large  stores  of  corn,  that  all  apprehensions 
of  famine  were  soon  at  an  end.  Such  quantities  were  bought 
there,  that  the  natives  came  down  the  river  with  fifty  canoes 
laden  with  it  at  one  time.*  But  other  troubles  pressed  hard 
upon  the  people.  The  colony,  on  account  of  the  expenses 
of  the  Pequot  war,  was  largely  in  debt.  A  further  outlay 
of  money  was  also  needed  to  provide  guns  and  magazines 
of  powder  and  ball  for  future  security.  A  tax  of  six  hun- 
dred and  twenty  poundsf — the  first  ever  levied  in  Connecti- 

*  Mason's  History.  +  J.  II.  Trumbull's  Colonial  Records,  i.  12. 


92  HISTORY  OF  CONNECTICUT. 

cut — was  ordered  by  the  General  Court  to  be  immediately 
collected  from  the  towns.  This  was  done  in  February,  1638, 
and,  in  the  March  following,  the  court  appointed  John  Mason 
commander-in-chief  of  the  militia  of  Connecticut.  He  was 
directed  to  call  out  the  militia  of  each  town  in  the  colony  ten 
times  during  each  year,  and  instruct  and  practice  them  in 
mihtary  affairs.  For  this  arduous  service  he  received  a 
salary  of  forty  pounds.*  The  eloquent  Hooker  was  desig- 
nated as  most  fit  to  deliver  to  him  the  staff  of  his  new  official 
rank.  The  ceremony,  simple  as  it  doubtless  was,  must  have 
been  imposing  and  memorable  to  all  who  witnessed  it.  But 
I  will  not  attempt  to  represent  a  scene  that  has  been  described 
by  one  of  the  most  eloquent  of  American  writers  in  words 
like  the  following : 

"  Here  is  a  scene  for  the  painter  of  some  future  day — I  see 
it  even  now  before  me.  In  the  distance,  and  behind  the  huts 
of  Hartford,  waves  the  signal  flag  by  which  the  town  watch 
is  to  give  notice  of  enemies.  In  the  foreground  stands  the 
tall,  swart  form  of  the  soldier  in  his  armor ;  and  before  him, 
in  sacred,  apostolic  beauty,  the  majestic  Hooker.  Haynes 
and  Hopkins,  with  the  legislature,  and  the  hardy,  toil-worn 
settlers  and  their  wives  and  daughters,  are  gathered  round 
them  in  close  order,  gazing  with  moistened  eyes  at  the  hand 
which  lifts  the  open  commission  to  God,  and  listening  to  the 
fervent  prayer  that  the  God  of  Israel  will  endue  his  servant, 
as  heretofore,  with  courage  and  counsel  to  lead  them  in  the 
days  of  their  future  peril.  True,  there  is  nothing  classic  in 
the  scene.  This  is  no  crown  bestowed  at  the  Olympic 
games,  or  at  a  Roman  triumph,  and  yet  there  is  a  severe, 
primitive  sublimity  in  the  picture,  that  will  sometime  be  in- 
vested with  feelings  of  the  deepest  reverence.  Has  not  the 
time  already  come,  when  the  people  of  Connecticut  will 
gladly  testify  that  reverence,  by  a  monument  that  shall  make 
the  beautiful  valley  of  the  Yanlic,  where  Mason  sleeps,  as 
beautifully  historic,  and  be  a  mark  to  the  eye  from  one  of  the 

*  J.  H.  Trumbull's  Colonial  Ilecords,  i.  15. 


[1637.]  ARRIVAL  OF  DAVENPORT  AND  EATON.  93 

most  ancient  and  loveliest,  as  well  as  most  populous,  towns 
of  our  ancient  commonwealth  ?"* 

Meanwhile,  a  new  colony  was  preparing  to  plant  itself  in 
the  woods  of  New  England.  On  the  26th  of  July,  1637,t 
arrived  in  Massachusetts,  the  Rev.  John  Davenport,  accom- 
panied by  Theophilus  Eaton,  Edward  Hopkins,  and  a  num- 
ber of  other  gentlemen  of  wealth  and  character,  with  their 
servants  and  household  effects.  They  were  for  the  most 
part  from  London,  and  had  been  bred  to  mercantile  and  com- 
mercial pursuits.  Their  coming  was  hailed  at  Boston  with 
much  joy,  for  they  were  the  most  opulent  of  all  the  compa- 
nies who  had  emigrated  to  New  England. 

The  Massachusetts  planters  made  strong  efforts  to  retain 
these  gentlemen  within  their  own  jurisdiction.  If  they  would 
stay,  the  General  Court  offered  them  whatever  place  they 
might  choose,J  and  the  inhabitants  of  Newbury  said  they 
would  give  up  their  whole  town  if  they  would  consent  to 
occupy  it.  But  the  new  emigrants  had  come  to  found  a  dis- 
tinct colony,  and  therefore  declined  to  accept  these  generous 
overtures.  They  were  only  in  doubt  where  they  should  go. 
The  pursuit  of  the  Pequots  from  the  mouth  of  the  Thames 
westward  along  the-  coast  to  Fairfield,  had  led  the  English  to 
explore  that  charming  tract  of  country,  with  its  inlets,  har- 
bors and  coves,  and  its  extended  plains  of  rich,  alluvial  land, 
enlivened  with  the  sparkling  waters  of  the  Housatonic,  and 
numerous  smaller  streams  that  impart  such  a  pleasing  variety 
even  to  a  level  country.  Those  who  went  upon  this  expe- 
dition had  brought  back  such  a  favorable  report  of  the  fertility 
of  this  territory,  that  it  was  resolved  to  make  it  the  seat  of  a 
new  colony.  Accordingly,  in  the  fall  of  the  same  year,  Eaton 
with  a  few  of  his  friends  visited  Connecticut,  and  made  a 
careful  exploration  of  the  sea-coast  and  the  back  country 
adjacent  to  it.  They  finally  pitched  upon  a  place  that  had 
a  good  harbor,  called  by  the  Indians,  Quinnipiack,  as  the  most 
eligible  spot  whereon  to  found  the  capital  city  of  their  colony. 

*  Rev.  Dr.  Bushnell's  Historical  Estimate  of  Connecticut,  22,  23. 
t  Savage's  Winthrop,  i.  272  ;  Trumbull,  i.  95.  J  Winthrop. 


94  HISTORY  OF  CONNECTICUT, 

Here  they  built  a  temporary  hut,  and  left  a  few  servants  in  it 
to  keep  possession  during  the  winter.  The  Dutch  had  been 
familiar  with  this  locality  long  before,  and  probably  from  the 
color  of  the  high  rocks,  that  are  visible  to  a  great  distance, 
had  given  it  the  name  of  "  Red  Mount." 

On  the  30th  of  the  next  March,  the  whole  company  set 
sail  for  Quinnipiack.  They  must  have  had  a  rough  voyage, 
as  they  were  a  whqle  fortnight  in  reaching  their  destined  har- 
bor. They  kept  their  first  Sabbath,  with  services  suited  to 
the  occasion,  under  a  branching  oak,  large  enough  to  give  its 
imperfect  shelter  to  every  man,  woman,  and  child,  in  the 
colony.*  We  may  almost  recall  this  simple  yet  imposing 
scene.  The  grim  old  oak,  whose  buds,  just  opened,  have  not 
yet  passed  from  gray  to  green,  stretching  its  gnarled  limbs 
between  the  worshipers  and  the  ungenial  April  sky,  darkened 
at  brief  intervals  by  flitting  clouds  ;  the  brown  trunks  of  the 
elms,  their  slender  boughs  at  last  evincing  signs  of  life ;  the 
different  varieties  of  maple,  some  adorned  with  blossoms  of 
pale  green,  others  blushing  in  hues  bright  as  those  that  flush 
the  cheek  of  the  young  maiden ;  further  off",  the  dingy  cedar, 
with  tangled  grape  vines  coiled  around  its  top;  in  the  distance, 
a  bald,  red  rock,  bending  its  well-defined  outline  around  the 
border  of  the  plain ;  to  the  east  of  it,  another  of  a  different 
form  rising  solitary  like  a  sentinel,  a  tuft  of  pines  surmounting 
its  seamy  forehead ;  near  by,  a  lively  view  of  dancing  blue 
waters,  rocking  two  small  ships  with  reefed  sails — make  out 
the  more  marked  traits  of  external  nature  that  meet  the  eye. 

Beneath  the  oak,  the  worshiping  assembly  is  ranged  in  due 
order.  Near  the  trunk  of  the  tree  are  the  two  Eatons — one 
in  the  robes  of  the  English  church,  for  they  were  not  yet 
thrown  aside  in  New  England  except  in  the  Plymouth  colony. 
The  Rev.  Mr.  Prudden,  Hopkins,  Gregson,  Gilbert,  and  other 
gentlemen — Davenport  in   canonicles   forming  the   central 

*  Trumbull,  i.  96.  This  oak,  according  to  tradition,  stood  near  the  north-east 
corner  of  College  and  George-streets,  (New  Haven)  in  the  present  door  yard  of 
a  venerable  dwelling,  in  which  was  born  that  staunch  old  divine  of  the  puritan 
stamp,  the  Rev.  Lyman  Beecher,  D.D. 


[1638.]  THE  PLANTATION  COVENANT.  95 

figure — opposite  them,  their  wives  and  daughters ;  and  at  a 
respectful  distance  the  humbler  classes,  the  males  and  females 
in  separate  groups ;  a  sober,  decent  congregation  of  Chris- 
tians, setting  at  naught  the  inclemencies  of  the  sky,  or  laying 
them  to  heart  as  the  chastening  frowns  of  God  and  the  hiding 
of  his  face  for  a  season,  they  listen  attentively,  first  to  Daven- 
port, as  he  discourses  to  them  from  the  first  verse  of  the  third 
chapter  of  St.  Mathew,  and  warns  them  "  of  the  temptations 
of  the  wilderness  ;"*  and  then  to  Prudden,  who  follows  his  fel- 
low-laborer with  a  well-chosen  text  from  the  same  chapter, 
"  The  voice  of  one  crying  in  the  wilderness,  prepare  ye  the 
way  of  the  Lord,  make  his  paths  straight."  Were  they  druids 
beneath  their  consecrated  groves,  the  scene  would  be  inter- 
esting and  instructive ;  but  Christians  as  they  are,  under 
whatever  forms  they  invoke  the  aid  of  Heaven — Christians 
contending  with  a  wilderness,  that  must  ultimately  fall  before 
them,  the  spectacle  is  sublime. 

They  had  not  been  long  at  Quinnipiack  before  they  entered 
into  a  "  plantation  covenant,"  the  language  of  which  is,  "  that 
as  in  matters  that  concern  the  gathering  and  ordering  of  a 
church,  so  also  in  all  public  affairs  that  concern  civil  order, 
they  would  all  of  them  be  ordered  by  the  rules  which  the 
Scripture  held  forth  to  them." 

The  spring  of  that  year  was  backward  and  forbidding. 
The  seed  corn  rotted  in  the  ground,  and  the  farmers  were 
obliged  to  plant  their  fields  twice,  and  in  some  instances  three 
times,  before  the  tardy  grain  sprouted  and  grew.f  This  sadly 
disheartened  them.  But  it  came  up  at  last,  and  throve  so 
well  that  they  took  courage.  But  on  the  first  of  June  their 
prospects  were  again  overcast.  Between  three  and  four 
o'clock  in  the  afternoon  of  that  day,  the  whole  surface  of 
New  England  was  shaken  by  an  earthquake.  We  are  told 
that  it  came  "like  continued  thunder,"  or  the  rattling:  of 
coach-wheels  along  a  paved  street.  In  some  places  it  was 
so  violent  that  it  threw  down  the  chimney-tops.     Nor  did  it 


*  Bacon's  "  Historical  Discourses,"  13  ;  Kingsley,  80 ;  Trumbull,  i.  96. 
+  Winthrop ;  Morton. 


96  HISTOEY  OF  COJSTjSTECTICUT. 

stop  with  the  land.  The  ships  trembled  in  the  harbors.  The 
islands,  as  well  as  the  main  land,  felt  the  shock.  The  chron- 
iclers tell  us,  perhaps  with  some  exaggeration,  that  the  earth 
shuddered  for  several  minutes,  and  that  for  many  days  after 
it  was  unquiet  and  tremulous.* 

In  the  following  November,  Theophilus  Eaton,  Mr.  Daven- 
port, and  other  gentlemen,  made  a  contract  with  Mo-mau- 
gu-in  in  reference  to  a  sale  of  lands.  A  very  interesting 
document  it  is,  being  in  the  nature  both  of  a  deed  of  sale  of 
Quinnipiack  and  a  league  or  solemn  treaty,  offensive  and  de- 
fensive ;  the  chief  covenanting  neither  to  terrify,  disturb,  nor 
injure  the  English,  who  in  return  agreed  to  protect  the  chief 
and  his  tribe,  and  see  that  they  had  lands  on  the  east  side 
of  the  harbor  both  for  hunting  and  tillage.  The  celebrated 
Thomas  Stanton  interpreted  the  indenture,  and  it  was  exe- 
cuted with  the  usual  formalities.  On  the  11th  of  December 
following,  the  same  gentlemen  bought  another  large  tract  of 
land  lying  northerly  of  the  former  purchase.  This  second 
piece  of  land  was  ten  miles  wide  from  north  to  south,  and 
thirteen  miles  in  length  from  east  to  west.  It  was  deeded  to 
them  by  Mon-to-we-se,  son  of  the  great  sachem  of  Mat-ta- 
be-seck.  It  was  a  valuable  territory,  and  has  since  been  di- 
vided into  the  towns  of  New  Haven,  Branford,  Wallingford, 
East  Haven,  Woodbridge,  Cheshire,  and  North  Haven. f  To 
one  who  now  stands  upon  the  summit  of  West  Rock,  and  looks 
off  upon  the  church  steeples  that  are  visible  within  the  limits 
of  those  towns,  it  seems  scarcely  credible  that  the  considera- 
tion of  this  deed  was  thirteen  English  coats,  with  the  reser- 
vation of  the  right  to  plant  and  hunt  upon  the  granted  pre- 
mises. But  the  price  was  an  adequate  one.  What  could 
the  grantors  do  with  money  ?  and  the  liberty  to  occupy  the 
land  for  the  two  purposes  named  in  the  deed,  comprised  in 
the  mind  of  an  Indian,  nearly  all  that  lawyers  mean  by  the 
term  fee  simple. 

In  the  character  of  its  immigrants  the  colony  of  New  Haven 
was  peculiarly  fortunate.     Early  in  the  year  1639,  another 

*  Trumbull,  i.  96.        t  Trumbull,  i.  99. 


[1639.] 


MEETING  IN  MR.   NEWMAN'S  BARN.  97 


company  of  gentlemen  of  high  character  arrived  from  Eng- 
land. This  new  emigration  was  headed  by  the  Rev.  Henry 
Whitfield.  Its  other  principal  men  were  William  Leete, 
afterwards  governor  of  the  colony ;  Samuel  Desborough, 
(or  Disbrowe,)  to  whom  Cromwell  afterwards  assigned  the 
post  of  lord  chancellor  of  Scotland,  at  a  time  when  he  was 
in  need  of  efficient  men ;  also  Robert  Kitchel  and  William 
Chittenden,  both  men  of  high  character. 

On  the  4th  of  June,  1639,  the  free  planters  of  Quinnipiack 
met  for  the  first  time  to  form  a  civil  and  religious  organiza- 
tion. They  had  no  spacious  hall,  as  now,  where  they  might 
assemble  and  discuss  affairs  of  state.  The  best  shelter  from 
the  sun  that  the  humble  architecture  of  the  place  could 
then  afford  its  population,  was  "Mr.  Newman's  barn" — 
Robert  Newman's,  probably — a  locality  doubly  consecrated, 
for  here,  within  a  few  feet  of  the  spot  where  the  planters  of 
Quinnipiack  first  convened  to  found  a  commonwealth,  lived 
and  died  Noah  Webster,  the  first  philologist  of  modern  times.* 
A  grave  matter  was  pending,  and  Mr.  Davenport  brought 
the  minds  of  the  planters  to  a  suitable  frame,  by  preaching 
to  them  from  the  words  of  Solomon  :  "  Wisdom  hath  builded 
her  house,  she  hath  hewn  out  her  seven  pillars."  It  was  a 
pungent  and  weighty  discourse,  in  the  sentiments  of  which 
Theophilus  Eaton  probably  concurred,  as  he  appears  to  have 
had  a  good  understanding  with  his  pastor  upon  all  topics. 
The  preacher  expressed  himself  very  explicitly  in  reference 
to  the  divine  origin  of  government,  and  argued  that  the 
church  and  the  civil  polity  were  inseparable.  Davenport 
claimed  that  the  church  ought  to  be  supported  by  seven  pil- 
lars or  members  of  eminent  piety,  and  that  the  other  mem- 
bers should  be  added  to  the  seven  pillars. 

*  For  the  discovery  of  the  location  of  this  primitive  hall  of  legislation,  the  public 
are  indebted  to  the  researches  of  the  Rev.  Leonard  Bacon,  D.D.,  whose  eloquent 
"  Historical  Discourses,  on  the  completion  of  two  hundred  years  from  the  begin- 
ning of  the  first  church  in  New  Haven,"  have  brought  to  light  many  interesting 
facts  in  the  early  history  of  the  New  Haven  colony,  which  were  before  either 
wholly  imknown  or  entirely  misapprehended. 

7 


98  HISTORY  OF  CONNECTICUT. 

A  series  of  resolutions  were  adopted  at  this  meeting,  of 
which  I  subjoin  a  copy. 

I.  That  the  scriptures  hold  forth  a  perfect  rule  for  the  di- 
rection and  government  of  all  men  in  all  duties  which  they 
perform  to  God  and  men,  as  well  in  families  and  common- 
wealth, as  in  matters  of  the  church. 

II.  That,  as  in  matters  which  concerned  the  gathering 
and  ordering  of  a  church,  so  likewise  of  all  public  offices 
which  concern  civil  order,  as  the  choice  of  magistrates  and 
officers,  making  and  repealing  laws,  dividing  allotments  of 
inheritance,  and  all  things  of  like  nature,  they  would  all  be 
governed  by  those  rules  which  the  Scripture  held  forth  to 
them . 

III.  That  all  those  who  had  desired  to  be  received  as  free 
planters,  had  settled  in  the  plantation  with  a  purpose,  resolu- 
tion, and  desire,  that  they  might  be  admitted  into  church  fel- 
lowship according  to  Christ. 

IV.  That  all  the  free  planters  held  themselves  bound  to 
establish  such  civil  order  as  might  best  conduce  to  the  secur- 
ing of  the  purity  and  peace  of  the  ordinance  to  themselves 
and  their  posterity  according  to  God. 

V.  That  church  members  only  should  be  free  burgesses ; 
and  that  they  only  should  choose  magistrates  among  them- 
selves, to  have  power  of  transacting  all  the  public  civil  affairs 
of  the  plantation  ;  of  making  and  repealing  laws,  dividing  in- 
heritances, deciding  of  differences  that  may  arise,  and  doing 
all  things  and  businesses  of  like  nature. 

That  civil  officers  might  be  chosen,  and  government  pro- 
ceed according  to  these  resolutions,  it  was  necessary  that 
a  church  should  be  formed.  Without  this  there  could  be 
neither  freemen  nor  magistrates.  Mr.  Davenport,  therefore, 
proceeded  to  make  proposals  relative  to  the  formation  of 
it,  in  such  a  manner  that  no  blemish  might  be  left  on  the 
"  beginnings  of  church  work."  It  was  then  resolved  to  this 
effect: 

VI.  That  twelve  men  should  be  chosen,  that  their  fitness 
for  the  foundation  work  might  be  tried,  and  that  it  should  be 


[1639.]    THE   CONSTITUTION  OF  NEW   HAVEN  COLONY.  99 

in  the  power  of  those  twelve  men  to  choose  seven  to  begin 
the  church.* 

Under  this  constitution,  so  original  and  unique  in  some  of 
its  provisions,  that  I  have  been  able  to  find  no  other  pre- 
viously existing  to  which  I  might  compare  it,  the  colony  of 
New  Haven  was  organized  and  continued  to  flourish  for 
many  years.  The  seven  pillars  were  Theophilus  Eaton,  Es- 
quire, Mr.  John  Davenport,  Robert  Newman,  Mathew  Gil- 
bert, Thomas  Fugill,  John  Punderson,  and  Jeremiah  Dixon. 
It  has  attracted  much  attention,  and  many  severe  remarks 
have  been  made,  arraigning  it  for  bigotry  and  intolerance. 
That  it  was  not  erected  upon  that  basis  of  universal  freedom 
peculiar  at  that  early  day  to  the  constitution  of  Connecticut, 
and  that  some  of  its  terms  are  harsh  and  jar  upon  the  ears 
of  men  who,  in  the  nineteenth  century,  have  been  reared 
under  a  system  of  government  where  the  church  and  the 
state,  though  on  terms  of  friendly  intercourse,  have  no  forced 
or  arbitrary  connection,  can  not  be  denied.  The  govern- 
ment organized  under  this  constitution  has  been  called  a  the- 
ocracy, but  with  what  propriety  the  term  has  been  applied  to 
it,  I  am  unable  to  see.  The  free  planters,  without  reference 
to  church  membership,  and  before  their  church  was  instituted, 
met  together,  debated  earnestly  the  principles  that  were  to 
be  embodied  in  their  constitution,  and  then  voted  with  one 
consent  that  "  church  members  only  should  be  free  burgesses, 
and  that  they  only  should  choose  magistrates  among  them- 
selves, to  have  power  of  transacting  all  the  public  civil  affairs 
of  the  plantation."  This  is  not  a  claim  set  up  by  the  chui'ch, 
to  rule  the  people  by  virtue  of  a  divine  right.  As  yet,  they 
have  no  church.  But  the  planters  themselves  designate,  of 
their  own  choice,  for  reasons  that  they  deem  valid,  a  body  or 
class  of  men  whom  they  choose,  out  of  which  all  officers  of 
civil  trust  shall  be  elected.  Nor  are  the  interests  of  the 
church  and  state  in  any  way  blended.  No  church  officer,  as 
such,  has  any  civil  power.  But  we  are  told  that  these  men 
were  surely  fanatics  in  one  respect ;   that  they  adopted  the 

*  Trumbull,  i.  104,  105. 


100  HISTOKY  OF  CONNECTICUT, 

laws  of  God  as  laid  down  in  his  revealed  word.  The  reader 
will  remember  that  the  people  of  New  Haven  were  fourteen 
months  deliberating  what  kind  of  constitution  they  would 
form.  They  were  still  more  slow  and  cautious  in  coming  to 
a  conclusion  what  should  be  the  temper  and  spirit  of  the 
laws  passed  under  it.  And  in  order  that  no  act  of  legislation 
might  be  passed  with  unseemly  haste,  they  decided  to  adopt 
the  laws  of  Moses  until  they  could  form  others  more  appli- 
cable to  the  state  and  condition  of  their  people.  What  out- 
rage did  they  perpetrate  under  these  laws?  What  injustice 
did  they  practice  either  toward  the  wild  tribes  of  savages 
that  surrounded  them,  or  toward  their  own  citizens  ?  What 
was  the  practical  working  of  their  system  ?  Let  their  schools, 
where  learning,  elastic  and  free  as  the  air  of  the  north,  yet 
substantial  and  well-grounded  as  the  hills  on  whose  summits 
that  air  lingers  to  sport  with  the  cheek  of  health  that  meets 
it  there — let  that  fair  city,  laid  out  in  squares  by  its  first  foun- 
ders, as  if  they  were  prescient  of  the  beauty  that  was  to  adorn 
its  forehead  like  a  chaplet  of  unfading  flowers,  long  after  the 
green  mounds  should  be  leveled  and  the  monuments  thrown 
down  that  claimed  for  the  leaders  of  the  colony  "  the  passing 
tribute  of  a  sigh" — let  these,  and  the  good  order  that  still 
springs  up  and  grows  upon  the  spot  as  if  it  were  indigenous 
there  like  the  leaves  of  the  shade  trees  that  make  the  city  a 
bower,  yet  grows  not  old  and  fades  like  them — answer  for 
the  spirit  and  the  practical  workings  of  the  constitution  and 
laws  of  their  commonwealth.  "  By  their  fruits  ye  shall  know 
them."  Bigotry,  superstition,  intolerance,  are  words  of 
weighty  significance  in  the  mouths  of  wise,  dispassionate 
men,  when  applied  to  the  history  of  civil  and  religious  lib- 
erty in  England  and  America.  But  when  adopted  as  the 
catch-words  of  a  party,  ecclesiastical  or  political,  and  hurled 
like  thunderbolts  from  army  to  army  of  the  combatants  to 
blast  and  shatter  their  adversaries,  what  are  they  but  the 
implements  of  a  blind  destruction,  at  sight  of  which  reason 
retires  from  the  field,  and  Christian  charity  shudders  as  she 
turns  away  her  face  ?     It  is  my  purpose  to  avoid  the  appli- 


[1639.]  MILFOKD   SETTLED.  101 

cation  of  tliose  words  as  much  as  possible  in  delineating  the 
various  parties  and  classes  of  people  representing  different 
interests  in  Connecticut,  both  before  and  since  the  American 
revolution.  The  laws  of  the  colony  of  New  Haven  I  shall 
treat  of,  when  I  come  to  express  my  views  of  the  jurispru- 
dence of  Connecticut, 

Having  thus  established  itself  at  home  upon  safe  founda- 
tions, the  colony  of  New  Haven  began  to  send  out  liberal 
swarms  from  the  metropolitan  hive.  On  the  12th  of  Feb- 
ruary, 1639,  Wepowage  (Milford)  was  purchased,*  and  Me- 
nunkatuck  (Guilford,)  in  September  of  that  year.  Both  towns 
were  settled  according  to  the  New  Haven  plan.  The  Rev. 
Peter  Prudden  led  the  way  in  the  settlement  of  Milford.  The 
"seven  pillars"  of  the  Milford  church  were,  Peter  Prudden, 
William  Fowler,  Edmund  Tapp,  Zechariah  Whitman,  Thomas 
Buckingham,  Thomas  Welch,  and  John  Astwood.  Milford 
was  an  independent  commonwealth  until  1643,  when  it  be- 
came merged  in  the  colony  of  New  Haven. f  Their  civil 
institutions  did  not  differ  essentially  from  those  of  New 
Haven.  The  planters  of  Milford  were  most  of  them  from 
the  counties  of  Essex,  Hereford,  and  York,  in  England.  A 
part  of  them  came  first  to  New  Haven ;  a  still  larger  part 
followed  Mr.  Prudden  from  Wethersfield,  where  he  preached 
for  a  little  while  in  the  course  of  the  year  1638.  Among  the 
principal  gentlemen  who  came  from  Wethersfield  to  Milford, 
were  Robert  Treat,  Esq.,  afterwards  governor  of  Connecti- 
cut, and  renowned  both  as  a  civilian  and  soldier,  and  John 
Sherman,  a  venerable  name,  of  whom  I  shall  by  and  by  give 
a  more  extended  sketch.  There  were  fifty-four  -  heads  of 
families,  and  more  than  two  hundred  persons  in  all,  who  first 
went  to  Milford.  J  A  more  substantial  company  of  emigrants 
never  followed  a  clergyman  into  the  wild  woods  of  America, 
than  the  fathers  of  Milford.  Guided  by  Thomas  Tibbals, 
they  went  through  the  forest  from  New  Haven  to  Wepow- 
age. An  Indian  trail  was  their  only  path.  The  territory  at 
that  time  was  occupied  with  the  Paugussett  Indians,  of  whose 


*  Lambert's  Hist.,  New  Haven  Colony,  85.         t  Lambert.         $  lb.  90. 


102  HISTORY  OF   CONNECTICUT. 

sachem,  Ansantawae,  the  land  in  the  centre  of  the  township 
was  purchased  by  these  pioneers.  This  was  a  numerous  and 
powerful  tribe,  and  occupied  a  region  extending  some  sixteen 
or  eighteen  miles  along  the  coast,  and  reaching  at  least  twelve 
miles  into  the  interior.*  My  limits  forbid  that  I  should  at 
present  do  more  than  make  this  brief  allusion  to  the  heroic 
little  commonwealth  at  Milford. 

The  first  settlers  at  Guilford  were  a  large  proportion  of 
them  gentlemen.  The  rest  were  known  as  yeomen.  Both 
gentlemen  and  yeomen  were  almost  all  planters.  There  were 
so  few  mechanics  among  them  that  they  could  scarcely  find 
carpenters  to  build  their  houses ;  not  a  blacksmith  was  to  be 
found  among  them,  and  it  was  with  difficulty  that  they  finally 
procured  one.  The  early  citizens  of  Guilford,  almost  with- 
out exception,  emigrated  from  Surry  and  Kent.  Mr.  Henry 
Whitfield,  their  clergyman,  was  of  an  old  English  family,  and 
had  preached  with  eminent  success  at  Oakley  in  Surry.  He 
was  a  friend  of  Mr.  Fenwick  of  Saybrook.  An  intimacy 
also  existed  between  him  and  Desborough.  Desborough  was 
the  first  magistrate  of  Guilford.  Indeed,  he  appears  to  have 
been  born  to  good  fortune.  Some  more  minute  account  of 
him  may  not  only  interest  the  reader,  but  serve  to  correct 
some  errors  into  which  several  of  our  antiquaries  have  fallen, 
who  appear  to  have  mistaken  him  for  John,  his  elder  brother, 
who  was  a  brother-in-law  of  Cromwell,  and  a  major-general. 
Samuel  Desborough  was  the  third  surviving  son  of  James 
Desborough,  Esquire,  and  was  born  at  Ellisley,  on  the  third 
of  November,  1619.  After  his  return  to  England  in  1650  he 
was  immediately  sent  to  Scotland  to  enter  upon  the  dis- 
charge of  some  public  trust  under  the  government,  at  the 
instance  of  his  brother  John,  and  of  OHver  Cromwell,  who 
was  then  a  general  in  the  army.  He  was  soon  after  chosen 
a  member  of  Parliament  to  represent  the  city  of  Edinburgh. 
On  the  4th  of  May  1655,  at  a  council  held  at  Whitehall, 
Oliver  Cromwell,  then  Lord  Protector,  appointed  him  one  of 
the  nine  counselors  for  the  kingdom  of  Scotland.     In  1656 

*  Deforest,  50. 


DESBOROUGH.  103 

he  was  elected  a  member  of  parliament  for  the  sheriffdom  of 
Midlothian.  He  manifested  such  singular  ability  in  the 
discharge  of  these  several  official  functions,  and  became  such 
a  favorite  of  the  Protector,  that  on  the  16th  of  September, 
1657,  was  made  keeper  of  the  great  seal  of  Scotland.  He 
continued  lord  chancellor  of  Scotland  during  the  remainder 
of  Cromwell's  life,  and  during  the  brief  reign  of  his  son 
Richard,  and  after  the  restoration,  when  the  royal  proclam- 
ation made  at  Breda,  reached  him,  he  thankfully  availed  him- 
self of  the  clemency  so  graciously  tendered  him,  and  signed 
his  submission  to  king  Charles  II.  on  the  21st  of  May,  1660. 

He  was  ever  after  treated  by  the  king  with  kindness  and 
dehcacy.  None  of  his  ample  estate  resulting  from  a  lucra- 
tive office  was  confiscated.  He  retired  to  his  seat  at  Els- 
worth  where  he  continued  to  reside  in  a  munificent  and 
hospitable  manner  until  his  death,  which  happened  on  the 
10th  of  December,  1690.  On  the  south  side  of  the  com- 
munion rails  in  the  chancel  of  the  venerable  old  church  at 
Els  worth  is  a  black  marble  slab  with  a  simple  inscription 
commemorative  of  the  virtues  of  Samuel  Desborough,  lord 
chancellor  of  Scotla:nd.  On  the  north  side  of  the  commu- 
nion rails  in  the  same  chancel  is  a  corresponding  memorial 
informing  the  reader  that  Rose  Pennyer,  the  wife,  who  was 
proud  to  share  his  noonday  honors  and  his  later  fortunes,  is 
resting  by  his  side. 

There  are  still  extant  a  portrait  of  Lord  Desborough,  and  an 
excellent  miniature.  The  latter  is  by  Cooper.  Both  repre- 
sent him  in  middle  life.  The  face  is  oval,  with  whiskers,  a 
small  lock  extending  beneath  the  lower  lip.  The  features  are 
very  handsome  and  engaging ;  the  eye  bright  and  piercing ;  and 
the  whole  countenance,  expressive  of  that  good  sense,  discrim- 
inating judgment,  moral  courage,  and  quick  zeal  tempered  by 
discretion  and  experience  that  constituted  the  best  traits  of 
his  marked  and  commanding  character.*  Such  was  Des- 
borough, magistrate  of  Guilford.  In  naming  the  princi- 
pal gentlemen  of  Guilford,  we  should  not  foi-get  to  speak 

*  Noble's  "  House  of  Cromwell,"  vol.  ii.  pp.  295,  296. 


104  HISTORY  OF  CONKECTICUT. 

in  this  place  of  William  Leete,  Esq.  He  emigrated  from 
Cambridge,  where  he  was  for  some  time  register  of  the  Bish- 
op's Court.  He  had  been  bred  to  the  law  in  England.  When 
Desborough  left  the  peaceful  magistracy  at  Guilford  to  mingle 
in  the  stormy  civil  wars  that  convulsed  England,  Leete  be- 
came his  successor.  He  played  an  important  part  in  the  his- 
tory of  the  colony  at  a  later  day — so  we  leave  him  for  the 
present.  John  Cafinge,  also,  was  one  of  the  first  planters  of 
Guilford.  The  town  was  at  first  independent  of  New  Haven 
colony,  and  had  its  own  constitution  and  code  of  laws  for 
several  years. 

The  year  1639  was  fruitful  in  the  birth  of  new  plantations, 
and  Connecticut  did  her  part  toward  peopling  what  might 
then  with  propriety  be  called  "  the  west."  The  I'eader  will 
remember  that  Ludlow,  the  great  lawyer  and  statesman  of 
the  colony,  had  accompanied  as  a  counselor  the  little  army 
that  followed  the  remnant  of  the  Pequots  to  Sasco  swamp, 
where  they  made  their  last  unavailing  stand  against  the  allied 
powers  of  Massachusetts  and  Connecticut.  Ludlow,  who 
was  not  only  a  good  lawyer  and  an  enthusiastic  lover  of  lib- 
erty, but  a  man  whose  love  of  adventure  fitted  him  for  pio- 
neer hfe  and  whose  exuberant  imagination  asked  for  ampler 
room  in  which  to  expand  itself,  fixed  his  sagacious  eye  on  the 
rich  plains  of  Un-quo-wa,  (Fairfield,)  and  saw  at  a  glance 
their  natural  advantages.  Indeed,  he  saw  every  thing  at  a 
glance.  His  mind  intuitively  recognized  the  relations  of 
things  the  most  abstract  as  well  as  those  connected  with  the 
common  affairs  of  life.  He  had  that  gift  of  insight  and 
love  of  moral  beauty  that  forms  a  principal  element  in  the 
mind  of  a  great  poet  like  Milton.  His  views  upon  govern- 
ment more  nearly  resemble  Milton's  than  those  of  any  other 
writer  upon  constitutional  liberty  of  the  seventeenth  century. 
Ludlow,  such  as  I  have  represented  him,  could  not  long  re- 
main without  the  excitement  of  another  removal,  and  selected 
Fairfield  as  his  point  of  destination.  He  was  an  inhabitant 
of  Windsor,  and  took  with  him  eight  or  ten  families,  his 
neighbors  and  admirers.     This  handful  of  adventurers  was 


[1639.]  STRATFORD   SETTLED.  105 

soon  joined  by  a  party  from  Watertown,  Massachusetts,  and 
not  long  after  another  accession  was  made  to  its  numbers 
from  Concord.  Under  the  auspices  of  Ludlow,  the  planta- 
tion soon  grew  into  a  large  town,  and  became,  as  it  has  ever 
since  remained,  a  part  of  Connecticut.  The  township  was 
honorably  purchased  of  the  Indians. 

Within  the  range  of  the  same  year,  those  parts  of  Stratford 
called  Cupheag  and  Pughquonnuck  were  purchased,  and  set- 
tlements commenced  there  under  the  superintendence  of  Mr, 
Fairchild,  who  was  the  first  magistrate  of  the  town.  John 
and  William  Curtis  and  Samuel  Hawley  came  from  Rox- 
bury,  Massachusetts,  and  Joseph  Judson  was  from  Concord. 
These  were  the  earliest  planters  and  principal  gentlemen 
of  Stratford.  Afterwards,  a  few  heads  of  families  arrived 
from  Boston,  and  Samuel  Wells  from  Wethersfield  with 
three  sons.  The  first  clergyman  of  Stratford  was  Mr.  Adam 
Blackman,  who  had  preached  with  eminent  success,  first  at 
Leicester  and  then  in  Derbyshire,  England.  He  was  a  gen- 
tleman of  such  pleasant  manners  and  so  many  winning  traits 
of  character,  that  many  of  his  parishioners  followed  him  to 
America.  He  had  been  a  clergyman  of  the  church  of  Eng- 
land. "  Entreat  us  not  to  leave  thee,"  said  his  weeping  flock, 
as  they  gathered  about  him,  "  for  whither  thou  goest  we  will 
go,  thy  people  shall  be  our  people,  and  thy  God  our  God." 
This  beautiful  town  bordering  on  the  Housatonic  river  and 
Long  Island  sound,  and  commanding  a  pleasant  view  of  each, 
has  been  the  scene  of  many  stirring  adventures  and  thrilling 
incidents,  and  is  hallowed  as  the  residence  of  men  whose 
names  are  "  of  the  treasures"  not  only  of  the  State  but  of  the 
nation.    It  is  too  early  in  the  order  of  events  to  mention  them. 


CHAPTER  VI. 

COLONEL  PEXVICK  ESTABLISKES  A  GOVEEXilENT  AT  SATBEOOI. 

While  the  people  of  Connecticut  and  New  Haven  were 
thus  enlarging  their  boundaries,  there  sprang  up  at  the  mouth 
of  Connecticut  river  a  new  commonwealth,  independent  of 
them  both ;  indeed,  with  rights  paramount  to  theirs,  even  to 
the  very  soil  that  they  occupied,  had  its  proprietors  chosen 
to  assert  them — for  those  proprietors,  the  Lord  Say  and  Seal, 
the  Lord  Brooke,  and  others,  it  will  be  remembered,  had  a 
paper  title  to  a  vast  region,  embracing  much  more  than  the 
territory  now  called  Connecticut.  This  new  commonwealth 
was  established  by  Colonel  George  Fenwick,  who,  with  his 
wife,  sometimes  known  as  Lady  Fenwick  and  sometimes  as  the 
Lady  Alice  Boteler,  together  with  the  other  members  of  his 
household,  arrived  about  midsummer  of  the  year  1639.*  Col- 
onel Fenwick  had  in  his  charge  two  ships,  and  was  accom- 
panied by  several  gentlemen  of  high  respectability,  who, 
with  their  attendants,  aided  in  laying  the  foundations  of  Say- 
brook — for  so  they  named  the  settlement  in  honor  of  two  of 
its  principal  patrons  and  proprietors.  Colonel  Fenwick  was 
one  of  the  original  patentees,  and  acted  in  their  behalf.  There 
had  been  a  garrison  kept  up  at  the  fort  since  its  first  erection 
by  Mr.  Winthrop,  in  1635,f  but  no  civil  government  was  or- 
ganized until  the  arrival  of  Colonel  Fenwick  and  his  com- 
pany. Among  the  first  proprietors  of  this  town  were  Captain 
John  Mason,  Thomas  Tracy,  Lyon  Gardiner,  who  was  the 
commander  of  the  fort,  and  Thomas  Leffingwell.  The  Rev. 
Thomas  Peters  was  the  first  clergyman  there.  L^pon  its 
early  records,  also,  appear  the  names  of  Huntington,  Baldwin, 
Backus,  Hyde,  Bliss,  Whittlesey,  Waterman,  and  Dudley. 
Houses  had  been  built  under  the  superintendence  of  Win- 
throp for  gentlemen  of  quality  in  connection  with  the  fort, 

*  Trumbull,  i.  1 10.        t  Savage's  Winthrop,  i.  207,  208. 


[1639.]  WETHERSFIELD   AjSTD   MIDDLETOWK  107 

SO  that  Colonel  Fenwick  experienced  less  of  hardship  and 
privation  in  carrying  out  his  enterprise  than  was  usual  with 
the  founders  of  new  settlements.  Saybrook,  as  I  have  said, 
owed  no  allegiance  to  Connecticut.  She  had  her  own  inde- 
pendent government,  which  was  administered  by  Colonel 
Fenwick  until  the  year  1644,  when  it  fell  into  the  hands  of 
Connecticut. 

In  the  meantime,  the  citizens  of  Wethersfield  had  become 
involved  in  a  quarrel  with  Sowheag,  the  great  sachem  of 
Mattabesett,  (Middletown,)  that  threatened  the  colony  with 
another  Indian  war.  Sowheag  was  originally  not  only  the 
proprietor  of  the  present  towns  of  Middletown  and  Chatham, 
but  his  jurisdiction  extended  into  Pyquag,  (Wethersfield.)* 
The  inhabitants  of  Wethersfield — who  had  never  forgotten 
the  murders  committed  by  the  Indians  in  the  spring  of  1637, 
and  the  theft  and  abduction  of  the  two  maidens,  of  whose  fate 
they  were  so  long  kept  in  doubt — had  at  last  found  out  that 
the  Pyquag  Indians,  under  their  old  chief  Sowheag,  had  aided 
the  Pequots  in  perpetrating  those  outrages.  This  was  the 
original  cause  of  the  quarrel.  Sowheag  protected  the  guilty 
Indians,  and  carried  himself  haughtily  towards  the  planters 
of  Wethersfield,  who  complained  of  his  conduct,  and  insisted 
that  he  should  give  up  the  murderers.  The  court  decided, 
after  giving  all  the  matters  in  dispute  a  grave  hearing,  that 
the  Wethersfield  people  had  been  the  aggressors,  arid  there- 
fore that  they  should  forgive  Sowheag,  and  continue  on  terms 
of  friendship  with  him.  Mr.  Samuel  Stone  and  Mr.  Good- 
win were  appointed  a  committee  to  bring  about  a  reconcilia- 
tion. But  these  discreet  gentlemen  could  effect  nothing.  The 
planters  were  willing  to  listen  to  fair  terms  ;  but  Sowheag  not 
only  refused  to  deliver  up  the  murderers  to  justice,  but  also 
added  new  insults  and  injuries  to  the  old.  In  this  state  of 
affairs,  the  court  determined  to  send  one  hundred  men  to 
Mattabesett  to  take  the  murderers  by  force,  and  dispatched 
a  messenger  to  New  Haven  to  inform  the  authorities  there 
of  the  proposed  expedition.     This  project  did  not  receive  any 

*  Rev.  Dr.  Field's  Centennial  Address  at  Middletown. 


108  HISTOEY  OF  CONNECTICUT. 

countenance  at  New  Haven.*  The  governor  and  his  coun- 
cil agreed  to  the  proposition,  that  the  dehnquents  ought  to 
be  punished,  but  did  not  hke  that  mode  of  doing  it.  They 
dreaded,  they  said,  to  be  involved  in  an  Indian  war.  They 
had  hitherto  kept  aloof  from  all  troubles  with  the  Indians,  and 
meant  to  do  so  as  long  as  they  could.  They  regarded  war 
as  a  horrible  calamity.  Connecticut  followed  the  advice  of 
New  Haven,  and  wisely  abandoned  the  enterprise. 

War,  however,  was  resolved  on  in  another  quarter.  The 
Pequots  had  agreed,  at  the  close  of  the  campaign  that  resulted 
in  the  overthrow  of  their  tribe  and  the  partition  of  the  wretched 
remnant  that  survived  among  the  three  rival  chiefs  who  were 
eager  for  the  spoils,  that  they  would  never  again  organize 
themselves  as  a  distinct  people,  would  never  resort  to  their 
old  haunts,  rebuild  their  wigwams,  range  the  hunting  grounds, 
or  plant  the  fields  that  had  been  taken  from  them.  This 
agreement  they  had  violated  by  taking  possession  of  Pawca- 
tuck,  a  part  of  the  prohibited  country,  erecting  some  huts 
there,  and  planting  some  fields  with  corn.  The  court  there- 
fore sent  Mason  with  forty  Englishmen,  with  instructions  to 
"drive  them  off,  burn  their  wigwams,  and  bring  away  their 
corn."f  Uncas,  with  one  hundred  Indians  and  twenty  ca- 
noes, went  with  the  English  leader.  On  his  arrival  at  Paw- 
catuck.  Mason  fell  in  with  three  Pequots,  and  sent  them  for- 
ward to  inform  their  friends  of  his  coming,  and  to  advise  them 
to  leave  the  place  peaceably.  Whether  the  couriers  did  their 
errand  is  doubtful,  for  when  Mason  had  landed  his  men  and 
surrounded  the  little  village,  the  Indians  were  so  taken  by 
surprise  that  they  had  no  time  to  carry  off  their  treasures  or 
their  corn.  They  fled  in  hot  haste,  leaving  their  old  men  to 
the  mercy  of  their  enemies,  who  did  them  no  harm.  Uncas 
had  a  little  skirmish  with  about  fifty  of  the  warriors,  that  re- 
sulted in  the  injury  of  neither  party,  but  served  to  amuse  the 
English  who  stood  still  and  witnessed  it.     Seven  persons 

*  See  J.  H.  Trumbull's  Colonial  Records,  i.  31,  32. 

+  For  some  particulars  of  the  doings  of  the  court  at  this  time,  and  the  causes 
that  led  to  this  second  expedition  against  the  Pequots,  see  J.  H.Trumbull,  i.  31,  32. 


[1639.]     SECOND  EXPEDITION  AGAINST  THE   PEQUOTS.        109 

were  taken,  whose  lives  were  spared  at  the  intercession  of  a 
Narragansett  sachem.  Mason  and  his  men  spent  the  night 
on  board  their  vessel  that  was  anchored  in  the  little  creek. 
As  soon  as  it  was  light,  they  were  surprised  to  see  on  the 
shore  not  far  off  about  three  hundred  armed  Indians.  The 
soldiers  were  ordered  under  arms.  The  sight  of  the  English- 
men so  terrified  the  Indians,  that  some  of  them  fled,  and 
others  hid  themselves  behind  the  rocks  and  trees.  In  a 
minute  not  an  Indian  was  to  be  seen.  Mason  now  called 
to  them.  "  I  desire  to  speak  to  you,"  said  he,  in  a  loud  voice. 
In  an  instant  numbers  of  them  rose  up  and  timidly  showed 
themselves.  Mason  proceeded  to  say,  that  the  Pequots  had 
broken  their  covenant.  He  was  interrupted  by  the  Indians, 
who  replied  with  much  energy,  "  The  Pequots  are  good  men, 
and  we  will  fight  for  them,  and  protect  them."  "  It  is  not 
far  to  the  head  of  the  creek,"  resumed  Mason  ;  "  I  will  meet 
you  there,  and  we  will  try  what  we  can  do  at  fighting." 
"We  will  not  fight  with  Englishmen  for  they  are  spirits; 
but  we  will  fight  with  Uncas,"  replied  the  sons  of  the  forest. 

The  Indians  were  near  by  the  whole  day,  while  the  Eng- 
lish were  destroying  the  wigwams  and  carrying  on  board  the 
rich  harvest  of  corn  that  they  found  there,  but  they  did  not 
dare  to  interpose.  The  corn,  kettles,  trays,  mats,  wampum, 
and  other  treasures,  filled  the  vessel  and  fifty  canoes.  Thirty 
of  these  canoes  were  taken  from  the  Indians.* 

In  August  of  this  year,  the  first  steps  were  taken  toward 
"  a  general  confederation  of  the  colonies  for  mutual  offense 
and  defense."  The  General  Court  of  Connecticut  appointed 
the  deputy  governor,  Roger  Ludlow,  Mr.  Thomas  Wells,  and 
Mr.  Hooker,  a  committee  to  repair  to  Saybrook  and  consult 
with  Colonel  Fen  wick  on  this  important  matter,  f  Colonel 
Fen  wick  "  was  in  favor  of  a  union  of  all  the  New  England 
colonies."  This  proposed  union  was  to  guard  the  English 
settlements  against  the  Dutch  at  New  Netherlands,  (New 
York,)  who  were  rapidly  increasing  in  wealth  and  numbers, 
and  whose  new  governor,  William  Kieft,  had  forbidden  the 

*  See  Mason's  History;  also  Trumbull,  i.  113.  t  Colonial  Records. 


110  HISTOEY  OF  CONNECTICUT. 

English  to  carry  on  their  trade  at  "  Good  Hope,"  and  had 
made  a  solemn  protest  against  the  occupation  of  Quinni- 
piack  by  the  English.  This  proposal,  to  organize  a  general 
confederation,  was  the  first  breaking  up  of  the  fallow  ground 
wherein  to  sow  the  seeds  of  that  great  confederation  of  the 
thirteen  colonies,  which,  more  than  a  century  and  a  quarter 
later,  gave  such  a  fatal  blow  to  the  British  dominion  upon 
this  continent,  and  laid  the  foundations  of  an  empire  that  will 
soon  have  no  boundaries  more  circumscribed  than  the  polar 
ice  of  the  Arctic  on  the  north,  and  upon  the  east,  south,  and 
west,  the  tides  of  those  oceans,  gulfs,  and  seas,  that  in  their 
ceaseless  ebb  and  flow  so  fitly  represent  the  inexhaustible 
energies  of  the  greatest  republic  of  the  world. 

This  year,  also,  on  the  10th  of  October,  the  General  Court 
incorporated  all  the  towns  in  the  commonwealth,  and  author- 
ized them  to  manage  their  own  internal  affairs.*  This 
amounted  to  little  more  than  a  recognition  of  rights  previ- 
ously existing,  but  was  highly  important,  as  it  defined  the 
hmits  of  the  local  jurisdictions  by  instituting  a  local  tribunal 
in  each  town.  This  tribunal  consisted  of  a  body  of  men  not 
less  than  three  nor  more  than  seven — one  of  whom  was  to  be 
called  a  moderator.  They  were  called  "  principal  men,"  and 
were  to  be  chosen  by  the  votes  of  the  respective  towns.  A 
majority  of  these  "  principal  men,"  including  the  moderator, 
who  was  only  to  have  a  casting  vote,  was  to  constitute  a 
municipal  court  in  each  town.  This  court  brought  justice 
home  to  the  door  of  every  man  in  the  colony.  It  had  juris- 
diction of  all  matters  of  trespass  or  debt  where  the  matter  in 
demand  did  not  exceed  forty  shillings.  It  held  its  stated 
sessions  once  every  two  months. 

At  this  session,  our  admirable  system  of  recording  all  con- 
veyances of  land  was  instituted.  "  The  towns,"  say  the 
court,  "  shall  each  of  them  provide  a  ledger  book  with  an 
index  or  alphabet  unto  the  same ;  also  shall  choose  one  who 
shall  be  a  town  clerk  or  register,  who  shall,  before  the  Gen- 
eral Court  in  April,  next,  record  every  man's  house  and  land 

*  J.  H.  Trumbull,  i.  36,  37. 


[1639.]  PROBATE   REGULATIONS.  Ill 

already  granted."  It  is  made  the  duty  of  the  owners  of  lands, 
under  heavy  penalties,  to  present  to  the  town  clerk  a  descrip- 
tion of  their  real  estate  for  record.  "The  like  to  be  done  for 
all  land  hereafter  granted  and  measured  to  any ;  and  all  bar- 
gains or  mortgages  of  lands  whatsoever  shall  be  accounted 
as  of  no  value  until  they  be  recorded." 

This  excellent  safeguard  against  fraudulent  conveyances 
has  with  some  modifications  continued  to  exist  in  Connecticut 
from  that  day  to  the  present.  It  is  one  of  those  monuments 
of  legislative  wisdom  erected  by  our  fathers,  of  which  there 
are  so  many  still  standing.  A  legal  provision,  in  order  to 
endure  the  test  of  time,  must  embody  a  principle  and  teach 
some  great  moral  lesson.  It  must  be  a  commentary  at  once 
upon  the  necessities  that  compel  man  to  conform  to  the  rules 
of  civil  society,  based  as  they  are  upon  eternal  justice  and 
equity,  while  it  is  no  less  a  commentary  upon  that  corrupt 
heart  and  those  unruly  passions  that  are  perpetually  inciting 
him  to  violate  those  rules. 

At  this  session,  also,  the  dead  were  remembered  as  well  as 
the  living;  and  provision  was  made  for  taking  an  inventory 
of  the  estate  of  deceased  persons,  carrying  into  effect  their 
wills  either  written  or  nuncupative,  if  they  left  any ;  or,  if 
they  died  intestate,  to  see  that  a  proper  administration  was 
had  of  their  effects,  and  an  equitable  distribution  made  to  the 
heirs.  Wills  and  all  proceedings  in  the  settlement  of  estates 
were  to  be  recorded.  If  no  kindred  of  the  deceased  could  be 
found  having  inheritable  blood,  then  his  estate  was  to  escheat 
to  the  commonwealth,  care  being  taken  to  register  a  perfect 
inventory  of  his  property,  so  that  if  legal  representatives 
should  ever  appear,  they  might  receive  what  justly  belonged 
to  them. 

I  merely  allude  to  these  great  landmarks  of  our  jurispru- 
dence as  historical  facts,  that  will  be  treated  of  at  length 
elsewhere. 

It  proved  to  be  no  easy  matter  for  the  colonies  of  Connec- 
ticut and  New  Haven  to  get  the  Indian  title  to  their  lands. 
There  were  so  many  original  elements  among  the  different 


112  HISTORY  OF  CONNECTICUT. 

Indian  tribes,  that  in  some  instances  it  became  necessary,  for 
the  sake  of  peace,  to  purchase  the  lands  several  times  over. 
The  colony  of  Connecticut  bought  of  Uncas  the  whole  Mo- 
hegan  country,  and  was  obliged  to  pay  for  it  many  times  in 
the  troubles  and  quarrels  that  were  thrown  upon  them  by 
their  connection  with  that  restless  chief  The  inhabitants 
of  the  towns,  too,  were  obliged,  when  they  made  their  settle- 
ments, to  pay  Uncas  for  the  same  land. 

In  1640,  the  commonwealth  bought  Waranoke,  (Westfield,) 
and  began  a  settlement  there.  The  same  year,  Roger 
Ludlow  purchased  of  the  Indians  that  part  of  Norwalk 
that  lies  between  the  Saugatuck  and  Norwalk  rivers.  Cap- 
tain Patrick  bought  the  central  part  of  the  town,  and  a  few 
hardy  men  with  their  families  soon  removed  thither.  The 
western  part  of  the  town  was  not  purchased  until  1651.* 

Greenwich  was  bought  about  the  same  time  in  behalf  of 
the  colony  of  New  Haven.  But  through  the  address  of  the 
indefatigable  governor  of  New  Netherlands,  the  inhabitants 
were  induced  to  put  themselves  under  his  protection — who 
with  much  solemnity  proceeded  to  incorporate  the  new 
town.-j-  If  his  Dutch  excellency  was  guilty  of  any  treachery, 
as  the  New  England  writers  of  that  day  charged  -upon  him, 
he  was  well  requited  for  it.  The  Indians  drove  off  the  plan- 
ters of  Greenwich.  Indeed,  no  settlement  could  ever  thrive 
there  until  Connecticut  procured  her  charter  and  took  the 
plantation  under  her  protecting  wing. 

Connecticut  further  extended  her  limits  by  making  a  pur- 
chase of  a  large  tract  of  land  upon  Long  Island.  This  terri- 
tory extended  from  the  eastern  boundary  of  Oyster  Bay  to 
the  western  line  of  Holmes'  Bay.  It  was  a  large  and  valuable 
tract,  embracing  the  whole  northern  portion  of  the  island  be- 
tween the  limits  above  described.  The  eager  planters  has- 
tened to  occupy  it. 

New  Haven  was  not  to  be  outstripped  by  her  older  sister 
in  this  work  of  planting  new  towns.     Some  of  her  most  en- 

*  History  of  Norwalk. 

t  De  Vrics,  152  ;  Broaiiead,  i.  291,  296  ;  Trumbull,  i.  118. 


WETHERSFIELD.  113 

terprising  planters  were  therefore  not  long  in  securing  the 
title  to  Rippowams,  which  they  bought  honorably  of  two 
principal  chiefs,  Ponus  and  Toquanske.  This  grant  con- 
tained the  entire  town  of  Stamford.  Richard  Denton  was 
their  first  minister.  New  Haven  also  took  a  still  more  ad- 
venturous flight  when,  soon  after,  she  sent  men  under  Cap- 
tain Turner  to  buy  lands  on  both  sides  of  Delaware  Bay,  and 
followed  up  the  negotiation  by  sending  fifty  families  to  take 
immediate  possession.*  New  Haven  further  prosecuted  the 
work  of  colonization  by  obtaining  a  deed  from  the  Corchaug 
Indians  of  the  eastern  extremity  of  Long  Island.  The  In- 
dian name  of  the  place  was  Yennicock,  which  the  English 
changed  to  that  of  Southold.  This  plantation  was  com- 
menced under  the  direction  of  the  Rev.  John  Youngs  of 
Hingham,  in  Norfolk,  who  arrived  in  New  Haven  that  sum- 
mer with  his  parishioners,  and,  after  reorganizing  his  church 
after  the  plan  of  that  colony,  soon  set  sail  for  Long  Island, 
and  commenced  a  settlement.  Some  of  the  leading  planters 
were  WiUiam  Wells,  Jeremiah  Vaile,  and  Matthias  Corwin. 
Of  all  the  towns  belonging  to  Connecticut,  Wethersfield 
seems  from  the  first  to  have  been  most  involved  in  difficul- 
ties, civil  and  ecclesiastical.  The  settlement  had  been  com- 
menced by  a  high-spirited  and  very  excitable  people,  impatient 
of  control,  delighting  in  the  most  daring  enterprises,  and  stim- 
ulated rather  than  alarmed  at  the  dangers  that  beset  them. 
Did  the  Pequots  make  a  fierce  incursion  into  the  settlement, 
murder  and  scalp  a  part  of  their  freeholders,  and  carry  off 
their  fair  maidens  ?  So  far  from  striking  terror  into  the 
hearts  of  those  who  remained,  it  only  stirred  them  up  to  a 
resistance  so  determined  and  obstinate,  not  only  against  the 
Pequots,  but  against  the  chief  upon  the  Connecticut  river, 
who  was  thought  to  have  harbored  the  delinquents,  that  the 
authority  of  the  General  Court  commanding  them  to  forgive 
the  suspected  sachem  and  take  him  into  their  confidence, 
availed  so  little,  that,  but  for  the  timely  interposition  of  New 
Haven  the  colony  would  have  again  been  involved  in  war. 

*  New  Haven  Colony  Records. 
8 


114  HISTORY  OF  CONlsrECTICUT. 

Their  conduct  in  leaving  the  jurisdiction  of  the  Massachu- 
setts, in  opposition  to  the  decision  of  the  General  Court,  had 
elicited  the  remark  from  their  friends  at  Cambridge,  "  that  it 
was  the  opportunity  of  seizing  a  brave  piece  of  meadow," 
that  led  them  with  such  precipitate  haste  to  seek  the  valley 
of  the  Connecticut — a  remark  not  entirely  disinterested,  we 
may  infer  from  the  fact,  that  these  very  neighbors  had  an 
eye  upon  that  same  brave  piece  of  meadow-land.  This 
restlessness  of  the  citizens  of  Wethersfield,  so  much  spoken 
of  by  our  early  writers,  was  attributable,  among  other  causes, 
to  the  fact,  that  they  left  Massachusetts  without  a  clergyman 
to  lead  them. 

We  have  seen  how  the  settlement  of  Hartford  was  begun. 
Windsor  had  a  similar  origin,  being  led  into  pleasant  past- 
ures, and  to  lie  down  by  the  still  waters,  under  the  mild 
authority  of  the  Rev.  John  Wareham,  that  melancholy 
shepherd,  whose  desponding  eye,  lenient  and  gentle  towards 
the  faults  of  others,  was  yet  so  stern  and  austere  when 
turned  upon  his  own,  that  he  did  not  dare  at  all  times  to 
partake  of  the  bread  and  wine  that  he  administered  at  the 
sacrament,  fearing,  in  the  beautiful  words  of  his  biographer, 
that  the  seals  of  the  covenant  were  not  for  him.  Aside  from 
the  salutary  influence  of  Mr,  Wareham  upon  the  people  of 
Windsor,  he  was  seconded  by  a  large  number  of  gentlemen, 
at  the  head  of  whom  stood  Henry  Wolcott  and  Roger  Lud- 
low, Esquires,  and  Captain  John  Mason.  That  the  reader 
may  see  of  what  choice  materials  the  population  of  this  town 
was  composed,  I  may  add  to  these,  the  names  of  Whitefield, 
Eggleston,  Holcombe,  Marshall,  Pomeroy,  Strong,  Tudor, 
Parkham,  Buckland,  Palmer,  Terry,  Watson,  Phelps,  Gris- 
wold,  Moore,  Hurlbut,  Williams,  Denslow,  Loomis,  and 
Thornton.  The  Ellsworths  arrived  there  at  a  later  day.  The 
other  early  towns  in  Connecticut  and  New  Haven  colonies 
had  the  same  advantage.  But  Wethersfield  was  without  this 
balance-wheel  to  steady  her  motions.  Iler  people  had  left 
Mr.  Phillips  behind  them  in  Watertown,  and  in  the  hurry  to 
emigrate,  (who  that  ever  saw  the  Naubuc  meadows,  and  the 


FIRST  SETTLERS   OF  WETHERSFIELD.  115 

fields  of  Nayaug,  or  drank  of  the  healing  waters  of  the  pools 
of  Neipsic,  can  blame  them  for  it  ?)  that  they  forgot  their  dis- 
cipline, and  for  awhile  broke  their  ranks,  in  the  eager  pur- 
suit of  treasures  so  dazzling  to  the  eye.  Hence,  the  unhappy 
troubles  and  strifes  during  the  first  few  years  after  they  es- 
tablished themselves  there.  Hence,  too,  it  fell  out  that 
scarcely  a  new  plantation  was  made  in  the  colony,  for  a  long 
time,  that  did  not  receive  some  of  its  most  opulent  and  best 
planters  from  the  discontented  of  Wethersfield.  The  clergy- 
men and  more  influential  members  of  the  church,  both  of 
Hartford  and  Windsor,  did  what  they  could  to  tranquilize 
those  differences.  At  last,  in  1641,  the  Rev.  Mr.  Daven- 
port, and  other  gentlemen,  from  New  Haven,  were  called  in  as 
advisers.  Mr.  Davenport,  who  seems  to  have  had  a  quick 
knowledge  of  the  governing  motives  of  men,  and  a  happy  fa- 
cility in  giving  good  advice  in  difhcult  emergencies,  proposed 
that  the  contending  parties,  as  they  could  not  well  be  reconcil- 
ed, should  separate  ;  and  that  one  of  them  should  go  away,  and 
make  a  new  settlement  by  themselves.  At  first  this  council  did 
not  avail,  for  they  could  not  decide  which  party  should  go. 
The  church  at  Watertown,  Mass.,  now  took  them  in  hand,  but 
without  much  better  success.  At  length,  as  matters  were  all 
the  while  growing  worse,  Mr.  Andrew  Ward,  Mr.  Robert 
Coe,  and  twenty  other  planters,  with  their  families,  followed 
the  advice  of  Mr.  Davenport,  and  removed  to  Stamford,  thus 
placing  themselves  under  the  protection  of  New  Haven 
colony.  Among  those  gentlemen  who  removed  were  the 
Rev.  Richard  Denton,  Matthew  Mitchel,  Thurston  Raynor, 
Richard  Law,  and  Richard  Gildersleeve.  Among  the  prin- 
cipal gentlemen  of  Wethersfield,  who  remained  or  soon  after 
arrived,  were  the  names  of  Welles,  Wyllys,  Talcott,  Good- 
rich, Hollister,  Wright,  Kimberly,  Kilbourn,  Hale,  Treat,  Bel- 
den,  Deming,  Smith,  and  Bacon.  Most  of  these  proprietors 
owned  land  on  the  eastern  bank  of  the  Connecticut,  in  that 
part  of  the  town  now  embraced  within  the  boundaries  of 
Glastenbury  ;  and  several  of  them  built  upon  those  estates 
and  removed  there  long  before  the  incorporation  of  the  last 


116  HISTORY  OF  CONNECTICUT. 

mentioned  town.  Almost  all  of  these  families,  before  1700, 
intermarried,  and  from  their  blood  have  sprung  many  of  the 
brightest  ornaments  of  Connecticut.* 

The  Dutch  and  English  had  so  many  difficulties  during 
the  years  1641  and  1642,  and  the  Indians  assumed  such  a 
hostile  attitude  towards  our  colonies,  that  in  1643  the  old 
proposition  for  a  confederation  of  the  New  England  colonies 
was  renewed  on  the  part  of  Connecticut,  and  pressed  with 
great  earnestness. f  Indeed,  she  had  for  several  years  pre- 
vious annually  appointed  delegates  to  go  to  Massachusetts 
to  urge  forward  this  project  that  appeared  to  be  of  such 
vital  importance  to  all  the  colonies,  especially  to  the  weaker 
ones„ 

Massachusetts,  from  her  independent  resources  and  com- 
paratively dense  population,  was  not  so  much  exposed  as  the 
other  colonies  to  foreign  invasion.  She  therefore  felt  less 
anxiety  to  form  an  alliance  that  might  impose  upon  her  some 
unpleasant  burdens.  But  Connecticut  and  New  Haven, 
with  their  towns  scattered  along  the  coast,  planted  remote 
upon  Delaware  Bay  and  Long  Island,  where  the  Dutch,  the 
Swedes,  and  the  Indians  had  an  easy  access  to  them,  were 
warned  early  by  their  critical  situation,  to  adopt  some  per- 
manent measures  for  self-protection.  Massachusetts  claimed 
a  part  of  the  Pequot  country  by  right  of  conquest.  She  also 
claimed  Springfield  and  Westfield,  which  towns  it  was  in- 
sisted belonged  to  the  jurisdiction  of  Connecticut.  By  de- 
laying to  comply  with  the  urgent  request  of  Connecticut  in 
reference  to  the  desired  confederation,  this  powerful  colony 
hoped  the  more  readily  to  bring  her  weaker  sister  to  admit 
both  these  claims. 

But  clouds  now  gathered  darkly  over  all  the  colonies.  In 
May,  four  of  them,  Connecticut,  New  Haven,  Saybrook,  and 
Plymouth,  all  sent  commissioners  to  Boston.  Connecticut 
selected   Governor   Haynes    and   Edward   Hopkins ;    New 

*  See  Rev.  Dr.  Chapin's  History,  in  which  the  genealogies  of  nearly  all  those 
^milies  are  fully  given. 
+  Colony  Records. 


[1643.]  FIRST  AMERICAN  CONGRESS.  117 

Haven  chose  Governor  Eaton  and  Mr.  Gregson ;  Governor 
Winslow  and  Mr.  Collier  represented  Plymouth ;  Col.  Fen- 
wick  went  in  behalf  of  Saybrook ;  and  Massachusetts  con- 
fided her  interests  to  the  care  of  Governor  Winthrop,  Dud- 
ley, Bradstreet,  associated  with  Hawthorne,  Gibbons,  and 
Tyng — a  body  of  men  whom  I  name  with  pride,  as  worthy 
to  represent  the  American  Colonies  in  their  first  association 
against  foreign  encroachment ;  worthy,  too,  to  prefigure  and 
typify  that  other  body  of  men  who,  at  a  later  day,  affixed 
their  names  to  a  paper  which  was  at  once  a  protest  against 
the  tyranny  of  proscription,  and  a  memorial  of  the  rights  of 
man,  that  will  gradually  extend  its  benign  dominion,  until,  of 
the  strong  holds  of  despotic  power,  whether  American,  Euro- 
pean, or  Asiatic,  there  shall  not  be  left  one  stone  upon 
another  that  is  not  thrown  down. 

These  articles  of  confederation  commence  by  stating  the 
object  of  all  the  colonies  in  removing  to  America,  and  then 
proceed  to  name  them  "  The  United  Colonies  of  New  Eng- 
land." They  go  on  to  declare,  that  they  do  jointly  and 
severally  enter  into  a  firm  and  perpetual  league  of  friendship 
and  amity,  offense  and  defense,  mutual  aid  and  service.* 

The  distinct  sovereign  jurisdiction  of  each  contracting 
power  is  not  only  provided  for,  but  it  is  expressly  stated,  that 
no  two  colonies  shall  be  united  in  one,  nor  any  other  colony 
be  received  into  the  confederacy,  without  the  consent  of  the 
whole.  Each  colony,  without  reference  to  size,  is  to  send 
two  commissioners,  and  no  more.  These  commissioners  are 
to  meet  once  every  year.  They  are  clothed  with  power  to 
make  war  and  peace,  laws  and  rules  for  the  protection  and 
regulation  of  the  confederacy.  In  case  there  should  be  a 
war  offensive  or  defensive,  involving  the  interests  of  the 
whole,  or  any  one  of  the  allied  powers,  the  expense  was  to 
be  borne  according  to  the  number  of  the  male  inhabitants  in 
each  colony,  between  the  ages  of  sixteen  and  sixty  years. 
When  any  member  of  the  confederation  was  invaded,  all  the 

*  For  a  copy  of  the  articles  of  confederation,  see  Hazard's  State  Papers,  vol.  ii. 
first  article. 


118  HISTORY   OF   CONNECTICUT. 

Others  were  bound  to  send  troops  to  its  assistance — Massa- 
chusetts, one  hundred ;  each  of  the  others,  forty-five  men. 
Before  more  could  be  demanded,  there  must  be  a  special 
meeting  of  the  commissioners. 

In  this  New  England  Congress,  the  vote  of  six  commis- 
sioners upon  any  measure  was  binding  upon  the  whole  body. 
If  those  who  voted  for  it  were  less  than  six,  and  yet  consti- 
tuted a  majority,  the  matter  should  be  referred  to  the  General 
Court  of  each  colony,  and  should  not  be  binding,  unless  the 
courts  unanimously  ratified  it.  It  was  provided,  too,  that  all 
servants  running  from  their  masters,  and  all  criminals  flying 
from  justice,  from  one  colony  to  another,  should,  upon  de- 
mand and  proper  evidence  of  their  character  as  fugitives,  be 
returned — the  servants  to  their  masters,  the  accused  to  the 
colonies  whence  they  fled. 

From  this  brief  synopsis  of  these  articles  of  confederation, 
it  will  be  seen  how  analagous  they  are  to  the  articles  of  con- 
federation of  the  thirteen  colonies,  as  well  as  to  the  present 
Constitution  of  the  United  States  of  America. 

The  new  government  was  soon  put  in  requisition.  The 
Pequots  and  Narragansetts,  as  will  be  remembered,  had  been 
enemies  long  before  the  Pequot  war.  After  the  overthrow 
of  Sassacus,  and  the  division  of  the  little  remnant  of  his 
people  among  the  Narragansetts,  the  Nihanticks  and  Mohe- 
gans,  the  two  most  powerful  tribes  who  shared  the  spoils, 
soon  began  to  entertain  the  most  vindictive  feelings  towards 
each  other.  Miantinomoh  represented  the  Narragansetts, 
and  Uncas  the  Mohegans.  Whether  Miantinomoh  was 
angry  at  the  unequal  distribution  of  the  Pequots,  or  whether 
his  more  open  and  generous  nature  was  goaded  to  acts  of 
violent  recrimination  by  the  arts  of  his  more  subtle  antagon- 
ist, or  whether  the  Narragansett  sachem  had  become  tired 
of  the  monotony  of  peace,  and  sought  an  occasion  to  prac- 
tice himself  and  his  warriors  in  the  old  pastime,  that  made 
life  so  full  of  pleasant  incident  to  them,  I  am  unable  to  say. 

One  cause  of  this  ill  blood  was  probably  the  attack  made 
by  Uncas  upon  Sequasson,  a  Connecticut  river  sachem,  who 


[1643.]  UNCAS  AND  MIANTINOMOH.  119 

was  a  kinsman  of  Miantinomoh.  It  appears  that  Uncas 
had  killed  several  of  Sequasson's  warriors,  and  burned  his 
wigwams ;  and  that  the  haughty  Narragansett  took  up  the 
quarrel,  and  determined  to  punish  Uncas  for  these  acts  of 
violence.  Whatever  may  have  been  the  cause  of  Miantino- 
moh's  hostile  feelings  towards  Uncas,  and  whether  they 
were  justifiable  or  not,  it  is  certain  that  the  Narragansett 
chief  violated  the  very  condition  on  which  he  had  received 
his  share  of  the  Pequots — that  of  maintaining  perpetual 
peace  with  all  the  contracting  parties — and  had  commenced 
open  hostilities  against  Uncas.  At  the  same  time  it  was 
believed,  that  he  used  all  his  eloquence  and  address  to 
incite  a  general  insurrection  of  the  Indians  against  the 
English.  It  was  thought,  too,  that  the  Indians  were  em- 
ployed in  preparing  guns  and  ammunition,  and  were  making 
a  general  preparation  for  war.  The  people  of  Connec- 
ticut thought  themselves  obliged  again  to  keep  watch 
and  ward  every  night,  from  sunset  to  sunrise,  in  all  their 
towns. 

Connecticut  sent  letters  to  the  Court  at  Boston,  asking  for 
one  hundred  men  to  be  sent  to  Saybrook  Fort,  to  be  ready 
for  any  emergency.  But  the  Court  of  Massachusetts  was 
not  satisfied  that  it  was  necessary  to  take  such  a  step,  and 
declined  complying  with  the  request. 

Miantinomoh  made  no  declaration  of  war  against  Uncas. 
His  preparations  were  all  secret.  He  collected  a  choice 
army  of  not  less  than  six  hundred  warriors,  and  stealthily  set 
forth  for  the  Mohegan  country.  It  was  hot  summer  weather, 
when  some  of  the  enemy  might  be  expected  to  linger  in  the 
shade,  to  protect  their  squaws,  while  they  were  in  the  fields 
taking  care  of  the  growing  corn,  others  to  be  found  loitering 
under  the  shadows  of  the  rocks  that  overhung  the  Yantic, 
and  leisurely  drawing  up  the  speckled  trout  from  its  dark 
pools.  The  invading  chief  knew  the  habits  of  the  Indians 
too  well,  not  to  be  aware  that  this  was  a  season  of  indolent 
repose  to  them,  and  that  then,  if  ever,  Uncas  would  be  found 
off  his  guard.     He  must  have  known,  too,  the  Mohegan  re- 


120  HISTOEY  OF  CONNECTICUT. 

treats,  and  places  of  resort,  almost  as  well  as  they  did  them- 
selves. He  intended,  therefore,  to  steal  upon  Uncas  slily, 
and  take  him  by  surprise. 

But  whatever  faults  the  Mohegan  sachem  had,  a  neglect 
to  see  after  his  own  interests  certainly  did  not  constitute 
one  of  them.  His  spies  were  on  duty  night  and  day.  A 
party  of  them,  probably  stationed  upon  a  high  hill  within  the 
present  limits  of  Norwich,  discovered  the  Narragansetts  as 
they  were  crossing  a  ford  in  the  Shetucket  river,  near  where 
it  unites  itself  with  the  Quinnebaug.  This  post  was  called 
Wawekus  Hill,  and  a  path  led  from  it  to  the  Little  Plain,  a 
spot  hallowed  as  the  burial  place  of  the  Mohegan  sachems. 
I  follow  the  account  of  Miss  Caulkins,  as  I  find  it  in  her 
history  of  Norwich.  "  A  cleft  or  ravine  from  this  spot,  once 
the  bed  of  a  rivulet,  came  out  directly  by  the  Indian  landing- 
place  at  the  foot  of  Yantic  Falls,  whence  a  canoe  could 
glide  in  a  few  minutes  to  Shantok  Point,  five  miles  below, 
where  Uncas  had  a  fort.  In  this  way  the  intelligence 
may  have  been  communicated  to  the  sachem  with  great 
rapidity." 

In  whatever  way  the  presence  of  this  hostile  force  in  his 
territory  was  detected  and  disclosed  to  Uncas,  the  chief  lost 
no  time  in  arming  himself.  Nor  did  he  merely  stand  on  the 
defensive.  With  about  four  hundred  warriors,  he  was  soon 
on  the  march  to  meet  the  enemy.  He  was  not  long  in  as- 
certaining that  Miantinomoh  had  crossed  the  fords  of  the 
Yantic  with  his  men,  and  that  he  was  in  hot  pursuit  of  him. 
He  was  a  mile  and  a  half  from  the  Yantic  on  the  "  Great 
Plain,"  when  he  received  this  intelligence.  Immediately  he 
drew  up  his  warriors  on  a  little  eminence,  and  hastily  in- 
formed them  of  his  plan  of  conducting  the  battle. 

The  Narragansetts  were  soon  visible  upon  a  neighboring 
hill,  pressing  on  to  meet  him.  Uncas  sent  forward  a  courier 
to  demand  a  parley  with  Miantinomoh.  He  assented  to  it, 
and  the  two  chiefs  at  once  stepped  forth  to  meet  each  other 
upon  the  plain,  between  the  two  armies,  while  Narragansetts 
and  Mohegans  alike  stood  still  and  awaited  the  result  of  the 


[1643.]  UNCAS  AND  MIANTINOMOH.  121 

interview.  As  Uncas  had  sought  the  parley,  so  was  he  the 
first  to  open  it. 

"  You  have  some  stout  men  with  you,"  said  he  to  his  ad- 
versary, with  well-dissembled  magnanimity  ;  "  so  have  I  with 
me.  It  is  a  pity  that  such  brave  warriors  should  be  killed  in 
a  private  quarrel  between  you  and  me.  Come  like  a  man, 
as  you  profess  to  be,  and  let  us  fight  it  out.  If  you  kill  me, 
my  men  shall  be  yours  ;  if  I  kill  you,  your  men  shall  be 
mine." 

"  My  men  came  to  fight,  and  they  shall  figh.t,"  replied  the 
haughty  sachem  of  the  Narragansetts.  Uncas  instantly  fell 
flat  upon  the  ground,  a  signal  well  understood  by  his  war- 
riors, who  in  a  breath  discharged  a  whole  flight  of  arrows 
into  the  ranks  of  the  Narragansetts,  who  afforded  the  fairest 
possible  mark  for  them,  standing  as  they  did  in  a  listening 
attitude,  with  their  eyes  fixed  upon  the  two  sachems. 
Before  the  astonished  Narragansetts  could  rally  to  defend 
themselves,  the  Mohegans,  with  Uncas  at  their  head,  gave 
the  war-whoop,  and  rushed  furiously  upon  them  with  their 
tomahawks.* 

In  such  a  confused  state  of  mind,  a  successful  resistance 
was  impossible.  The  out-witted  invaders  fled  toward  the 
fords  of  the  Yantic.  Their  lamentations  mingled  wildly 
with  the  victorious  shouts  of  the  Mohegans,  who  pursued 
them  across  the  Yantic,  and,  like  greyhounds  running  with 
the  game  in  sight,  followed  them  as  they  sped  over  hills, 
covered  with  prickly  bushes,  along  dangerous  precipices, 
and  across  sharp  ledges  of  rock,  in  their  flight  towards  the 
fords  of  the  Shetucket.  Some  of  the  Narragansetts  were 
driven  down  these  precipices  and  impaled  as  they  fell  upon 
the  jagged  corners  of  the  rocks  that  bristled  upon  their  sides. 
Others  were  shattered  to  atoms  in  the  ravines  below. 

Miantinomoh  had  on  a  corselet  of  mail  that  he  had  pro- 
cured of  the  English,  and,  encumbered  by  its  weight,  he  ran 
with  difficulty.     It  was  probably  a  part  of  Uncas'  stratagem 

*  Trumbull,  i.  131 ;  Miss  Caulkins'  History  of  Norwich,  16. 


122  HISTORY   OF   CONNECTICUT. 

to  take  him  alive.  He  was  accordingly  singled  out  jjy  two 
swift-footed  Mohegan  captains,  who  followed  him  remorse- 
lessly until  they  finally  came  up  with  him  near  the  river, 
and  impeded  his  progress  by  throwing  themselves  against 
him.  It  was  a  desperate  wager  that  he  ran  for,  and,  out  of 
breath  as  he  was,  he  ralhed  and  resumed  his  flight  only  to 
be  checked  again  and  again  by  his  tormentors,  who  were 
seeking  to  pander  to  the  vanity  of  their  chief  by  keeping  the 
royal  game  at  bay  until  he  should  arrive  and  claim  the 
honors  of  the  fhase. 

As  soon  as  Uncas  came  up  and  laid  his  hand  on  his 
shoulder,  the  flying  sachem  stopped,  and  without  attempting 
to  offer  resistance,  when  he  knew  it  would  be  hopeless,  sat 
quietly  down  upon  the  ground,  and  looked  his  conqueror 
calmly  in  the  face  ;  he  did  not  deign  to  utter  a  single  word. 

Uncas  gave  the  whoop  of  victory.  His  warriors  gathered 
around  him,  eager  to  look  upon  the  features  and  figure  of  the 
noble  captive,  whose  scornful  eye  regarded  them  with  a 
frigid  apathy. 

The  battle,  if  it  could  be  called  one,  was  over.  In  the 
short  space  of  twenty  minutes,  thirty  Narragansett  warriors 
had  been  slain,  and  besides  Miantinomoh,  many  prisoners 
had  been  taken,  among  whom  were  his  brother  and  two  sons 
of  his  uncle,  the  venerable  Canonicus.  Uncas  affected  sur- 
prise at  the  conduct  of  his  prisoner.  "  Had  you  taken  me," 
said  he,  "  I  should  have  besought  you  for  my  life."  Mianti- 
nomoh made  no  reply. 

Uncas  now  returned  to  his  fort  with  his  captives,  whom 
he  treated  with  kindness.  The  chief  of  so  powerful  a  tribe 
was  not  an  easy  prize  to  keep,  and  Uncas  hastened  to  Hart- 
ford, and  committed  him  into  the  hands  of  the  English. 
Samuel  Gorton,  of  Rhode  Island,  had  urged  him  to  this  step, 
hoping  in  this  way  to  spare  the  prisoner's  life.  Uncas 
agreed  to  be  governed  by  the  decision  of  the  English  in  the 
disposition  to  be  made  of  the  sachem,  who  was  accordingly 
lodged  in  jail  at  Hartford  until  the  Commissioners  of  the 
united  colonies  should  meet  in  September,  at  Boston. 


[1643.]  DEATH   OF   MIANTINOMOH.  123 

At  last  the  day  came  when  the  question  was  discussed 
whether  Miantinomoh  should  be  put  to  death.  The  charges 
adduced  against  him  were  these  ;  that  he  had  killed  a  Pequot 
who  had  testified  against  him  in  reference  to  his  treatment 
of  Uncas  ;  that  he  had  again  and  again  tried  to  take  the  life 
of  Uncas  by  assassination  and  poison  ;  that  he  had  broken 
his  league  in  making  war  upon  the  Mohegans  without  first 
taking  his  appeal  to  the  English;  and  .lastly,  that  he  had  con- 
ceived the  horrible  design  of  cutting  off  at  a  blow  the  whole 
English  population,  and  had  hired  Mohawks  and  Indians  of 
other  tribes  to  assist  him  in  its  execution.* 

That  Uncas  imposed  upon  the  too  ready  credulity  of  the 
commissioners  by  acting  upon  their  fears  in  this  delicate 
matter,  and  that  several  of  these  charges  were  sustained  by 
the  most  wicked  perjury,  I  cannot  doubt.  The  story  in  most 
of  its  details,  I  believe  to  have  been  a  Mohegan  fabrication 
and  backed  up  by  the  testimony  of  Mohegan  witnesses.  It 
seems  that  the  commissioners  questioned  its  truth,  and 
hesitated  to  act  upon  it.  At  last  it  was  referred  to  five 
principal  clergymen  of  the  several  colonies,  who,  after  a 
solemn,  and  I  doubt  not  an  honest  debate,  advised  that  sen- 
tence of  death  should  be  passed  upon  the  accused.  The  com- 
missioners followed  this  unfortunate  advice,  and  deputed  Un- 
cas— a  delightful  privilege,  and  a  good  reward  he  no  doubt 
esteemed  it,  of  all  his  exertions  in  the  premises — to  execute 
the  sentence.  Uncas  repaired  to  Hartford,  took  the  cap- 
tive into  his  custody,  and,  accompanied  by  a  file  of  English 
soldiers,  who  were  sent  to  protect  him  from  the  vengeance 
of  the  Narragansetts,  proceeded  to  execute  the  warrant. 
Two  other  Englishmen  were  also  sent  to  remain  by  the 
prisoner,  and  see  that  no  barbarities  were  practiced  at  the 
execution.  Uncas  took  Miantinomoh,  and  led  him  to 
the  place  where  he  had  been  taken.  When  they  had 
reached   the   fatal   spot,   the   brother   of  Uncas,  who   was 

*  Wintlirop  appears  to  give  full  credit  to  the  testimony  of  the  Mohegans,  es- 
pecially in  regard  to  a  conspiracy  against  the  English,  and  adds  that  "  he  was  a 
turbulent  and  proud  spirit,  and  would  never  be  at  rest." 


124  HISTORY  OF  CONNECTICUT. 

marching  behind  Miantinomoh,  split  his  head  with  a  hatchet 
and  killed  him  at  a  blow. 

Notwithstanding  the  presence  of  the  two  Englishmen, 
Uncas  cut  a  piece  from  the  shoulder  of  his  fallen  enemy, 
and  ate  it  in  savage  exultation.  "  It  was  the  sweetest  meat 
he  ever  ate,"  he  said,  and  added  complacently,  that  "  it 
made  his  heart  strong." 

Where  the  chief  of  .the  Narragansetts  was  taken  captive, 
where  he  was  killed,  there,  too,  they  dug  his  grave.  The 
place  is  still  memorable  as  the  "  Sachem's  Plain."  A  tumu- 
lus of  stones  was  heaped  high  above  the  mound,  by  the  pious 
hands  of  his  tribe,  who,  year  after  year,  made  their  pilgrim- 
ages to  the  grave.  Regularly  they  came  in  September,  and 
celebrated  the  anniversary  of  their  chief's  death,  adding 
each  a  stone  to  the  pile,  with  lamentations  and  gestures 
expressive  of  the  deepest  sorrow. 

Such  was  the  death,  and  such  the  obsequies  of  the  sachem 
of  the  Narragansetts. 

Two  oak  trees  also,  long  after  marked  the  spot ;  but  even 
these  stern  monuments  are  gone,  as  well  as  the  stones.* 
But  the  memory  of  the  dead  still  lives,  and  tradition  still 
fixes  the  locality  where  a  great  wrong  was  done  by  New 
England,  under  the  sanction  of  a  judicial  decision.  Had  the 
commissioners,  honest  men  as  they  were,  viewed  this  act  in 
the  sober  light  of  history,  it  never  would  have  been  perpe- 
trated. Says  the  historian  of  Norwich,  whose  keen  sense 
of  right  will  not  allow  her  to  sanction  this  deed,  "  The  sen- 
tence of  Miantinomoh  is  one  of  the  most  flagrant  acts  of  in- 
justice that  stands  recorded  against  the  English  settlers. 
He  had  shown  many  acts  of  kindness  towards  the  whites  ; 
in  all  his  intercourse  with  them  he  had  evinced  a  noble  and 
magnanimous  spirit,  and  only  seven  years  before  his  death, 

*  Miss  Caulkins,  in  her  "  History  of  Norwich,"  to  which  I  have  before 
adverted,  says :  "  A  citizen  of  Norwich,  still  living,  N.  S.  Shipman,  Esq.,  re- 
members this  tumulus  in  his  youth,  a  conspicuous  object,  standing  large  and 
high,  between  two  solitary  oak  trees,  about  sixteen  rods  east  of  the  old  Provi- 
dence road." 


[1643.]  MIANTINOMOH.  125 

had  received  into  the  bosom  of  his  country,  Mason  and  his 
little  band  of  soldiers  from  Hartford,  and  greatly  assisted 
them  in  their  conquest  of  the  Pequots."  For  myself,  were  it 
possible,  I  would  gladly  come  to  a  different  conclusion,  and 
whatever  human  fears,  exercised  at  a  time  when  their  do- 
minion was  most  to  be  excused,  whatever  the  evil  influences 
of  false  or  prejudiced  testimony  may  do  towards  palliating 
the  decree,  I  shall  joyfully  take  into  the  account,  to  qualify- 
but  never  to  justify  it. 


CHAPTER  VII. 

PROGRESS  OP  SETTLEMENT.    TROUBLES  WITH  THE  DUTCH  AND  INDIANS. 

The  relations  existing  between  the  English  colonies  and 
the  Dutch  of  New  Netherlands,  were  never  of  a  very  ami- 
cable character.  I  do  not  propose  to  follow  the  example 
either  of  the  Connecticut  or  New  York  historians,  in  com- 
plaining of  the  motives  or  conduct  of  either  party.  I  can 
only  say,  that  the  claims  set  up  by  each,  being  inconsistent 
with  those  of  the  other,  and  the  blood  of  different  nations 
flowing  in  their  veins,  it  was  not  to  be  expected  that  they 
should  entertain  amicable  feelings  towards  each  other.  It 
must  be  admitted,  that  the  Dutch  navigators  first  visited  the 
coast  of  Connecticut  and  Long  Island.  Adrian  Block,  a 
spirited,  daring  adventurer,  in  a  little  yacht,  named  the  Rest- 
less, that  he  had  built  on  the  bank  of  the  Hudson  river,  as 
early  as  1614,*  ventured  to  pass  through  Hell  Gate,  and  sailed 
as  far  eastward  as  Cape  Cod.  He  probably  did  not  sail  very 
near  the  main-land,  until  he  had  left  New  Haven  to  the 
westward  of  him,  as  he  has  left  us  no  traces  from  which  we 
can  infer  that  he  touched  upon  the  coast  of  western  Connec- 
ticut. He  was,  probably,  the  first  European  discoverer  of 
Montauk  Point,  to  which,  he  gave  the  name  of  Fisher's  Hook, 
and  of  the  little  cluster  of  brilliants,  sparkling  upon  the  bosom 
of  Long  Island  Sound — that  inland  sea,  that  annually  drifts 
its  smooth  pebbles  and  pearly  sands  upon  the  Southern  line 
of  Connecticut.  One  of  these  he  called  Fisher's  Island  ;t  an- 
other he  named  after  himself,  and  it  still  bears  the  name  of 

*  O'Callaghan's  New  Netherlands,  p.  72. 

t  The  historian  of  Long  Island,  (Thompson,  p.  248,)  states  that  this  island  was 
originally  called  Vischer's  Island,  and  was  probably  so  named  by  Block,  from  one 
of  his  companions.  In  the  absence  of  any  positive  evidence  on  that  point,  the 
probabilities  seem  altogether  to  favor  the  generally  received  opinion,  that  the 
island  was  named  from  the  chief  occupation  of  its  aboriginal  inhabitants,  or,  from 
the  quantities  of  fish  with  which  the  adjacent  waters  abounded. 


[1643.]  THE   DUTCH  AND  INDIANS.  127 

Block  Island.  He  probably  entered  most  of  the  principal 
harbors,  and  explored,  to  a  greater  or  less  distance,  most  of 
the  navigable  streams  of  the  main-land.  After  that,  for 
several  years,  the  Dutch  traders  frequented  the  coast  and 
islands,  and  carried  on  a  brisk  trade,  with  the  Indians,  in 
furs.  In  1632,  they  bought  of  the  natives,  the  neck  of  land 
at  the  mouth  of  the  Connecticut  river,  afterwards,  and  still 
known  as  Saybrook,  to  which  they  gave  the  name  of  Kievit's 
Hook,  from  the  number  of  birds,  called  by  the  Dutch,  Kieveet, 
and  by  the  English,  Pewet,  that  they  saw  hovering  about 
the  spot.*  On  the  8th  of  June,  1633,  they  bought  of  the  In- 
dians, the  place  known  as  Dutch  Point,  near  Hartford. f 
The  English,  who  soon  after  arrived,  disputed  their  right  to 
these  places,  and  had  covered  the  whole  territory  with  their 
paper  titles,  before  the  Dutch  took  possession.  In  addition 
to  this,  as  the  Cabots  had  discovered  the  main-land  to  the 
east  of  the  Connecticut  coast,  the  English  claimed,  that  this 
discovery  took  in  all  the  Continent,  to  the  "  South  Seas." 
It  is  foreign  to  my  purpose  to  enter  into  a  discussion,  as  to 
the  rights  of  these  claimants.  One  thing  is  certain,  the  Eng- 
lish, claiming  by  right  of  discovery,  by  grant  from  their  mon- 
arch, and  by  subsequent  purchase  of  the  Indians,  took,  and 
have  ever  since,  kept  possession  of  most  of  the  country  then 
the  subject  of  dispute ;  and,  as  the  Dutch  and  English  have 
since  been  to  a  good  degree,  united  in  blood  as  well  as  in 
civil  and  social  relations,  in  New  York,  it  seems  to  me  nar- 
row and  provincial,  to  spend  much  time,  at  this  late  day,  in 
vexing  anew  the  question  of  original  proprietorship. 

In  1643,  a  war  broke  out  between  the  Dutch  and  the  In- 
dians, that  for  awhile  allayed  all  disputes  between  the  Dutch 
and  English.  It  fell  out  in  the  following  manner  :  The  gov- 
ernment of  New  Amsterdam  had  not  been  as  careful  as  the 
colonies  of  Connecticut  and  New  Haven,  in  enacting  and 
enforcing  sumptuary  laws,  and  had  allowed  traders  to  sell  the 
Indians  strong  liquors,  more  than  was  prudent,  as  the  event 

*  O'Callaghan,  p.  149. 

+  This  was  the  claim  of  the  Dutch,  and  I  am  willing  to  concede  it. 


128  HISTORY  OF  CONNECTICUT. 

proved ;  for  an  Indian,  who  had  been  subjected  to  the  per- 
nicious influences  of  this  traffic,  in  a  fit  of  intoxication,  killed 
one  of  the  Dutch  who  belonged  to  the  jurisdiction  of  New 
Amsterdam.  The  Dutch  demanded  that  the  murderer  should 
be  given  up  to  them  for  punishment,  but  he  was  not  to  be 
found.  The  injured  party  now  applied  to  the  governor  at 
New  Amsterdam.  But  the  governor  did  not  think  it  pru- 
dent to  interfere.  About  this  time,  the  Mohawks  fell  upon 
the  Indians,  who  lived  near  the  Dutch  settlements,  and  killed 
about  thirty  of  them.  Others  fled  to  the  Dutch  authorities 
for  protection.  Marine,  the  Dutch  captain,  obtained  leave 
of  the  governor  to  kill  as  many  of  these  Indians  as  he  could. 
His  commission  certainly  proved  to  be  no  farce  in  his  hands, 
for  he  acted  under  it  with  such  zeal  as  to  make  an  indiscrim- 
inate slaughter  of  seventy  or  eighty  men,  women,  and  chil- 
dren, at  one  stroke.  The  enraged  Indians  rallied  to  avenge 
themselves  for  this  wholesale  slaughter.  In  the  spring  of 
1643,  the  Indians  began  to  retaliate.  They  set  fire  to  the 
store-houses  of  their  adversaries,  drove  their  cattle  into  the 
barns,  and  then  burned  up  both  barns  and  cattle.  The  In- 
dians upon  Long  Island  joined  those  upon  the  main-land,  and 
destroyed  a  great  amount  of  property. 

In  this  situation,  the  Dutch  governor  applied  to  Captain 
Underbill,  of  Stamford,  for  assistance,  which  so  enraged 
Marine,  that  he  pointed  his  pistol  at  his  Excellency,  and 
would  have  shot  him  but  for  the  interference  of  a  friend. 
One  of  Marine's  tenants  leveled  his  gun,  loaded  with  ball, 
and  deliberately  discharged  it  at  the  governor,  but  missed 
him,  A  sentinel  immediately  avenged  this  rash  act,  by 
shooting  the  tenant  dead  upon  the  spot. 

The  Dutch  do  not  appear  to  have  liked  a  war  with  the 
Indians  as  well  as  their  executive  functionary  had  anticipa- 
ted. Indeed,  so  indignant  were  they  at  the  conduct  of  the 
governor,  that  he  was  obliged  to  keep  a  guard  of  fifty  Eng- 
lishmen, constantly  about  him,  to  protect  his  person  from  the 
violence  of  his  subjects.  During  the  summer  and  fall,  the 
Indians  killed  fifteen  men  of  the  Dutch,  and  for  a  time,  al- 


[1643.]  MUEDER  OF   MRS.    HUTCHINSON.  129 

most  broke  up  all  the  settlements  between  Stamford  and 
New  York.  The  horrors  of  this  destructive  war  were  felt 
for  many  miles  along  the  coast.* 

The  unfortunate  Mrs.  Hutchinson,  who,  when  banished 
from  Massachusetts  for  her  religious  opinions  and  factious 
conduct,  had  fled  to  Rhode  Island,  where  she  seems  to  have 
been  as  persuasive  and  bewitching  as  ever  before,  in  1642, 
and  after  the  death  of  her  husband,  became  tired  of  the 
sceptre  of  authority  that  she  wielded  over  a  very  submissive 
people,  and,  as  other  monarchs  had  done  before  her,  abdica- 
ted, and  retired  with  her  family  and  a  few  servants  to  a 
place  between  New  Haven  and  New  York — a  remote  refuge 
in  the  heart  of  the  deep  woods.  Here,  this  mother  of  the 
Communitarian  school  of  politics,  that  has  made  so  much 
progress  in  America,  surrounded  by  savages  whom  her  bold 
heart  scorned  to  fear,  and  whose  friendship  she  cultivated 
with  a  faithfulness  and  assiduity  deserving  of  a  better  fate, 
had  erected  her  dwelling  and  begun  to  clear  a  few  fields  be- 
yond the  supposed  jurisdiction  of  the  English.  Perhaps  this 
ambitious  woman  intended  to  establish  here  a  new  em- 
pire, more  transcendental  than  Plato's  fancied  Arcadia — a 
spiritual  superstructure  upon  temporal  foundations,  that  was 
to  lift  its  fantastic  battlements  high  into  mid-heaven.  More 
probably,  however,  shocked  with  the  illiberality  of  the  age, 
she  meant  to  avert  forever  her  visionary  eye  from  what  she 
considered  the  tyranny  of  her  fellow-countrymen,  and  in  re- 
tirement fix  its  abstracted  gaze  upon  the  wild  speculations 
of  an  ideal  philosophy.  But  an  evil  hand  was  upon  her 
wherever  she  went.  The  children  of  the  forest  understood 
her  divine  mission  no  better  than  the  General  Court  of  Mas- 
sachusetts. They  stole  upon  her  settlement,  murdered  her, 
together  with  Mr.  Collins,  her  son-in-law,  and  all  her  chil- 
dren who  were  with  her,  except  a  single  daughter,  who  was 
carried  into  captivity.  Her  servants,  and  several  of  her 
neighbors,  eighteen  persons  in  all,  shared  her  tragical  fate.f 

*  Savage's  Winthrop,  ii.  117. 

t  Winthrop ;  also  Hildreth,  i.  288 ;  Trumbull,  i.  139. 
9 


130  HISTORY  OF  CONNECTICUT. 

The  Indians  kept  on  killing  the  Dutch,  and  burning  their 
houses  after  this  unhappy  affair,  as  before,  and  even  extend- 
ed their  depredations  from  the  main-land  to  Long  Island. 

The  Dutch  governor,  in  alarm,  solicited  the  colony  of 
New  Haven  to  send  troops  to  assist  him,  but  owing  to  the 
construction  put  upon  the  articles  of  confederation,  it  was 
thought  necessary  to  confine  the  action  of  the  colony  in  be- 
half of  the  applicants,  to  the  furnishing  of  such  provisions  as 
could  be  spared  to  them 

This  war  lasted  for  several  years.  Underbill  was  the  fast 
friend  of  the  Dutch  government,  and  commanded  the  Dutch 
forces,  with  such  men  as  he  himself  could  furnish.  But  for 
him  and  his  army  of  little  more  than  one  hundred  men,  the 
Dutch  settlements  must  have  been  annihilated.  He  killed, 
before  the  close  of  the  war,  between  four  hundred  and  five 
hundred  Indians.*  The  people  of  Stamford  at  last  began  to 
be  alarmed  at  the  contagious  effect  produced  by  this  pro- 
tracted struggle  upon  the  Indians,  who  lived  within  their  own 
borders.  They  wrote  to  the  authorities  at  New  Haven,  beg- 
ging for  protection,  and  added  that  if  their  houses  should  be 
burned,  on  account  of  the  remissness  of  the  other  plantations, 
the  negligent  parties  ought  to  sustain  the  loss.f 

The  year  1644  was  an  eventful  one.  The  Narragansetts 
appeared  to  be  making  ready  to  avenge  the  death  of  Mian- 
tinomoh.     England,  too,  was  now  in  a  state  of  civil  war. 

These  troubles  at  home,  and  in  the  mother  country,  filled 
the  minds  of  the  colonists  with  forebodings.  They  appoint- 
ed days  of  fasting  and  prayer  to  avert  the  impending  ca- 
lamities. The  Indians  of  western  Connecticut,  who  had  at 
first  conducted  themselves  with  so  much  leniency  towards 
the  English  planters,  now  showed  all  the  treachery  and  cru- 
elty of  their  nature,  by  committing  the  most  unprovoked  mur- 
ders, as  well  of  women  and  children  as  of  men.  Early  in 
the  year  they  wantonly  killed  a  man,  belonging  to  Massachu- 
setts, between  Fairfield  and  Stamford.      The  murder  was 

*  Belknap,  i.  50.  +  New  Haven  Colonial  Records. 


[1644.]  MURDER  BY  THE  INDIANS.  181 

soon  made  known,  and  the  Indians  promised  that  the  author 
of  it  should  be  brought  into  Fairfield,  and  delivered  up  to 
justice,  if  Mr.  Ludlow  would  appoint  men  to  take  him  into 
custody.  Mr,  Ludlow  sent  a  company  of  ten  men  for  this 
purpose,  but  when  the  Indians  came  with  the  prisoner,  with- 
in sight  of  the  village,  they  set  him  at  liberty,  and  he  fled. 
Mr.  Ludlow,  with  a  view  of  striking  terror  into  the  minds 
of  the  Indians,  took  about  a  dozen  of  them  captive,  one  of 
whom  was  a  chief  This  enraged  the  savages  so  much,  that 
they  assembled  in  such  numbers  as  to  induce  Mr.  Ludlow  to 
write  to  New  Haven  for  advice.  The  Court  counseled  him 
to  retain  the  captives,  and  prepared  to  send  twenty  men  to 
his  assistance.  Meanwhile,  four  of  the  sachems  visited  the 
village,  and  promised  to  deliver  up  the  murderer  within  a 
month,  if  the  English  would  restore  their  friends.  Accord- 
ingly they  were  set  at  liberty.  A  little  while  afterwards,  an 
Indian  went  into  a  dwelling  in  Stamford,  and,  seizing  a  lath- 
ing hammer,  which  he  found  at  hand,  commenced  a  brutal 
attack  upon  the  mistress  of  the  house.  With  this  deadly  in- 
strument he  struck  her  a  violent  blow  upon  her  head,  as,  in 
obedience  to  the  instincts  of  a  mother,  she  stooped  over  the 
cradle  to  take  up  her  infant  child.  She  fell  senseless.  He 
then  struck  her  twice  with  the  edge  of  the  instrument,  which 
penetrated  her  skull.  After  that  he  plundered  the  house,  and 
fled  into  the  woods.  The  poor  woman  was  restored  to  her 
senses  long  enough  to  give  an  intelligible  account  of  the 
transaction,  and  to  describe  the  dress  and  personal  appear- 
ance of  the  Indian.  But  this  return  of  reason  was  tempo- 
rary, and,  although  her  wounds  were  healed,  she  soon  fell  in- 
to a  state  of  blank  idiocy.  This  outrage  was  followed  up 
by  others.  The  Indians  refused  to  have  any  conference 
with  the  English,  but,  deserting  their  wigwams  and  corn, 
they  assembled  near  the  town,  armed  with  guns,  and  threat- 
ened to  destroy  the  whole  settlement.  In  this  critical  con- 
dition, the  towns  of  Fairfield  and  Stamford  applied  to  New 
Haven  and  Connecticut  for  assistance.  The  wretch  who 
had   worse  than   murdered   the  woman   at   Stamford,  was 


132  HISTORY  OF  CONISTECTICUT. 

finally  delivered  up  to  justice.  He  was  taken  to  New  Ha- 
ven, and  executed.  "  He  sat  erect  and  motionless,  until  his 
head  was  severed  from  his  body."* 

Wethersfield  was  the  fruitful  mother  of  many  towns.  Her 
difficulties  still  continued,  and  by  this  time  another  company 
of  the  disaffected  was  ready  to  leave  her  borders.  William 
Swaine  was  at  the  head  of  the  party.  They  had  long  been 
ready  to  remove,  and  only  waited  until  they  could  obtain  a 
favorable  place  for  a  settlement.  A  few  miles  east  of  New 
Haven  was  a  place,  called  by  the  Indians,  Totoket,  which 
had  been  purchased  of  the  inhabitants  as  early  as  1638,  and 
in  1640  granted  to  Mr.  Samuel  Eaton,  on  condition  that  he 
would  found  a  settlement  there.  That  gentleman  failed  to 
comply  with  the  stipulations  of  the  grant,  and  in  1644  the 
same  territory  was  conveyed  to  Mr.  Swaine  and  his  friends, 
who,  on  their  part,  agreed  to  remove  there  and  establish  a 
town  that  was  to  be  under  the  jurisdiction  of  New  Haven. 
Soon  after  this  conveyance  was  made,  the  Rev,  Abraham 
Pierson,  of  South  Hampton,  upon  Long  Island,  with  a  part 
of  his  congregation,  sailed  for  Totoket  Harbor,  and  made 
common  cause  with  Mr.  Swaine's  party.  To  this  delightful 
town,  overlooking  two  clusters  of  lilhputian  islands,  and  fan- 
ned by  cool  sea-breezes,  the  inhabitants  gave  the  solid  Eng- 
lish name  of  Branford.f 

On  the  5th  of  September,  1644,  the  commissioners  of  the 
United  Colonies  met  at  Hartford.  A  claim  was  set  up 
by  those  who  represented  Massachusetts,  that  they  had  a 
right  of  precedence  in  subscribing  all  treaties  and  other  doc- 
uments requiring  the  signatures  of  that  body,  as  they,  in  be- 
half of  their  colony,  had  first  signed  the  articles  of  confeder- 
ation. After  some  debate,  this  claim  was  denied  as  a  right, 
but  yielded  through  courtesy.  All  the  other  commissioners 
were  to  follow  in  the  order  in  which  they  had  signed  those 
articles. J 

From  north  to  south,  the  Indians  were,  during  the  year 

*  New  Haven  Colony  Records ;  Winthrop,  Trumbull,  &c. 
+  Barber's  Conn.  Ills.  Coll.,  p.  198.       t  Journal  of  the  Commissioners. 


Ei^.-,:  I'r  :..     F 


(T!  (D) ILi  c,  'W1TTT,iT!-.1TA\W  HI)  (©UJ ©ILA  S  . 


(mm^ 


[1644.]  TROUBLES  WITH  THE   INDIANS,  133 

1644,  unusually  troublesome.  In  Virginia,  whole  settlements 
were  annihilated.  In  some  villages  the  inhabitants  were  all 
murdered  at  one  fell  stroke.  It  was  believed  that  the  New 
England  Indians,  and  those  tribes  living  farther  south,  were 
combined  to  destroy  the  whole  white  population.  The  Nar- 
ragansetts  were  particularly  restive.  They  encroached  alike 
upon  Connecticut  and  Massachusetts.  The  old  quarrel  be- 
tween the  Narragansetts  and  Mohegans  waxed  hot  and 
threatening.  It  was  necessary  to  take  some  steps  to  quell  it. 
The  commissioners,  therefore,  sent  their  old  interpreter, 
Thomas  Stanton,  with  Mr.  Willet,  to  visit  the  sachems  of 
both  these  nations,  and  inform  them  that  the  commissioners 
were  then  in  session  at  Hartford,  and  if  they  would  appear  be- 
fore that  body,  and  state  their  grievances,  an  impartial  hearing 
should  be  had ;  and  that  all  proper  steps  should  be  taken  to 
reconcile  their  differences.  These  gentlemen  were  instructed 
to  offer  the  sachems  of  the  two  tribes,  or  those  who  might 
go  in  their  stead,  a  safe  passage  to  and  from  Hartford,  and 
to  enjoin  on  them  and  their  people  to  keep  the  peace,  not 
only  during  these  negotiations,  but  after  they  had  returned 
to  their  respective  countries. 

The  Narragansetts  sent  one  of  their  principal  chiefs,  and  Un- 
cas  went  in  behalf  of  the  Mohegans.  One  principal  theme  of 
complaint  alleged,  on  the  part  of  the  Narragansetts  was,  that 
Uncas  had  taken  a  ransom  for  Miantinomoh,  and  after  his 
death,  had  refused  to  return  it.  This  Uncas  stoutly  denied 
under  oath.  Other  evidence  was  heard,  both  in  support  of 
the  charge  and  in  behalf  of  the  defense.  The  hearing  re- 
sulted in  favor  of  Uncas, 

The  Narragansett  deputation  agreed  to  abide  by  the  de- 
cision, and  to  make  no  war  upon  Uncas,  until  after  the  next 
year's  planting-time — and  after  that,  before  commencing  hos- 
tilities, that  they  would  give  the  governors  of  Massachusetts 
and  Connecticut  thirty  days  notice.  This  stipulation  was  to 
be  binding  also  upon  the  Nihanticks,  as  well  as  upon  their 
own  tribe.* 

*  See  Trumbull,  i.  145,  146. 


134  HISTORY   OF   CONNECTICUT. 

About  this  time,  four  sachems  from  Monhausett,  upon 
Long  Island,  came  over  in  canoes  with  their  companions, 
and  humbly  waited  upon  the  commissioners  with  a  petition. 
They  stated  that  they  and  the  other  Indians  upon  the  island, 
had  paid  tribute  to  the  English  ever  since  the  Pequot  war, 
and  that  they  had  never  done  any  harm,  either  to  the  Eng- 
lish or  the  Dutch,  but  were  the  friends  of  both.  They  begged 
that  they  might  have  a  certificate  given  them  of  this  friendly 
relationship,  and  that  the  United  Colonies  would  take  them 
under  their  protection.  The  commissioners  gave  them  the 
certificate,  and  assured  them  of  protection,  as  long  as  they 
remained  at  peace  with  the  English,  and  kept  aloof  from  all 
the  quarrels  with  the  Indians.  With  this  certificate — a  cab- 
alistic charm  to  them — the  simple-hearted  tributaries  took  their 
leave,  deeply  impressed  with  the   superiority  of  the  English. 

During  the  same  session,  the  claim  of  Massachusetts 
to  a  part  of  the  Pequot  country  was  renewed.  Col.  Fen- 
wick  interposed  in  behalf  of  himself  and  those  whose  inter- 
ests he  represented,  and  begged  that  the  consideration  of  this 
matter  might  be  postponed,  until  the  Lord  Say  and  Seal,  and 
the  other  noblemen,  knights,  and  gentlemen,  who  were  named 
as  grantees  in  the  Warwick  patent,  and,  who  claimed  this 
very  territory,  could  have  an  opportunity  to  be  heard.  The 
commissioners  decided  that  a  convenient  time  ought  to  be 
given  to  those  noble  claimants  to  plead  their  title  to  the 
land  in  controversy. 

Massachusetts,  also,  renewed  her  claim  to  Westfield,  while 
Col.  Fenwick,  on  the  other  hand,  insisted  that  it  was  the  prop- 
erty of  the  same  grantees.  It  was  finally  decreed  that  West- 
field,  with  all  its  houses  and  lands,  should  be  under  the  juris- 
diction of  Massachusetts,  until  it  was  proved  to  which  colony 
the  plantation  belonged  ;  and  that  all  lands,  not  exceeding 
two  thousands  acres,  should  belong  to  the  purchasers. 

South  Hampton,  upon  Long  Island,  was  this  year  taken 
under  the  jurisdiction  of  Connecticut.  This  town  had  been 
settled  in  1640  by  about  one  hundred  families  from  Lynn.* 

«  Trumbull,  i.  148. 


[1645.]  THE   FIRST  TARIFF.  135 

When  the  General  Court  of  Connecticut  met  in  the  preced- 
ing April,  a  committee  was  appointed  to  treat  with  Col.  Fen- 
wick  in  relation  to  a  purchase  of  "  Saybrook  Fort,  and  of 
all  guns,  buildings,  and  lands  in  the  colony,  which  he  and 
the  lords  and  gentlemen  interested  in  the  Patent  of  Connec- 
ticut might  claim."  On  the  5th  of  December,  1644,  the  ne- 
gotiation was  completed  by  articles  of  agreement,  signed  by 
Col.  Fenwick  and  the  committee  appointed  by  the  General 
Court  of  Connecticut.  On  the  part  of  himself  and  the  other 
grantees.  Col.  Fenwick  made  over  to  Connecticut,  the  fort  at 
Saybrook  and  its  appurtenances;  also  all  the  lands  on  the  Con- 
necticut river !  Such  lands  as  were  not  sold,  were  to  be 
given  out  by  a  committee  of  five,  of  whom  Col.  Fenwick  was 
to  be  one.  Col,  Fenwick  also  agreed  that  all  the  lands  from 
Narragansett  river  to  Saybrook  fort  should  fall  under  the 
jurisdiction  of  Connecticut,  if  it  should  come  into  his  power 
so  to  dispose  of  it.  On  the  other  hand,  the  committee  who 
represented  Connecticut,  agreed  that  Col.  Fenwick  should 
enjoy  all  the  houses  belonging  to  the  fort  for  a  period  of  ten 
years,  and  that  a  duty  should  be  paid  to  him  for  a  like  term 
on  corn,  biscuit,  bacon,  and  cattle,  which  should  be  exported 
from  the  mouth  of  the  river.  The  General  Court  ratified 
this  agreement  in  February,  1645,  and  passed  an  act  to  reg- 
ulate the  duty  stipulated  in  the  articles  of  agreement.*  Pro- 
vision was  also  made  that  a  memorandum  of  the  landing  of 
each  cargo  passing  beyond  the  river's  mouth  should  be  made 
of  all  commodities,  subject  to  this  duty,  and  delivered  to  Col. 
Fenwick,  as  a  basis,  from  which  to  determine  how  much 
tribute  was  due  him.  This  was  the  first  tariff  ever  sanc- 
tioned by  the  people  of  Connecticut. 

The  duty  was  as  follows  : 

1st.  Each  bushel  of  corn  of  all  sorts,  or  meal,  that  shall 
pass  out  of  the  river's  mouth,  shall  pay  two  pence  per  bushel. 

2d.  Every  hundred  biscuit  that  shall  in  like  manner  pass 
out  of  the  river's  mouth,  shall  pay  sixpence. 

3d.  Each  milch  cow,  and  mare,  of  three  years  or  upwards, 

*  J.  H.  Trumbull's  Colonial  Records,  i.  119,  &o. 


136  HISTORY  OF   CONNECTICUT. 

within  any  of  the  towns  or  farms  upon  the  river,  shall  pay- 
twelve  pence  per  annum,  during  the  aforesaid  term. 

4th.  Each  hog  or  sow,  that  is  killed  by  any  particular  per- 
son, within  the  limits  of  the  river  and  the  jurisdiction  afore- 
said, to  be  improved  either  for  his  own  particular  use,  or  to 
make  market  of,  shall  in  like  manner,  pay  twelve  pence  per 
annum. 

5th.  Each  hogshead  of  beaver,  traded  within  the  limits  of 
the  river,  shall  pay  two  pence.  Only,  it  is  provided,  that  in 
case  the  general  trade  with  the  Indians,  now  in  agitation, 
proceed,  this  tax  upon  beaver,  mentioned  in  this,  and  the 
foregoing  articles,  shall  fail. 

It  proved  to  be  no  insignificant  sum  that  the  colony  paid 
for  this  purchase,  and  has  been  estimated  at  sixteen  hundred 
pounds  sterling.* 

The  General  Court  now  took  vigorous  measures  to  put 
this  important  fortification  in  good  repair.  A  tax  of  two 
hundred  pounds  was  levied  on  the  towns  for  this  purpose. 
The  Court  also  addressed  a  letter  to  Col.  Fenwick,  soliciting 
him  to  act  as  the  agent  of  the  colony,  and  sail  for  England, 
with  a  view  of  procuring  an  enlargement  of  the  patent,  "  and 
to  furnish  other  advantages  for  the  country." 

In  the  midst  of  these  stirring  events,  died  George  Wyllys, 
Esquire,  third  governor  of  Connecticut,  who,  had  there  been 
left  no  written  memorial  of  his  worth,  could  not  have  failed 
of  a  traditionary  fame  more  enviable,  though  less  glaring, 
than  that  of  the  proudest  military  conqueror.  He  came  of 
an  old  and  honorable  family,  and  was,  before  he  left  Eng- 
land, the  possessor  of  an  elegant  mansion  and  a  valuable  es- 
tate in  land,  situated  in  Knapton,  in  the  county  of  Warwick. 
Few  English  gentlemen  had  less  occasion  to  become  an  ad- 
venturer ;  none  had  less  cause  to  seek  his  fortune  in  the 
trackless  labyrinths  of  the  American  woods.  His  birth,  his 
wealth,  his  intellectual  endowments,  enriched  by  the  most  re- 
fined culture,  entitled  him,  in  the  best  of  English  neighbor- 
hoods, to  the  confidence  and  friendship  of  that  order  of  Eng- 

*  See  Trumbull,  1.  150. 


[1645.]  GOVERNOR  WYLLTS.  137 

lish  nobility,  whom  Burke  has  signalized  as  the  '•'  best  society 
in  the  world."  So  that,  whatever  may  be  said  of  others,  it 
cannot  truthfully  be  said  of  Wyllys,  that  he  sought  to  better 
his  fortunes  by  emigration.  He  knew  well,  that  as  the  world 
understands  the  term,  he  could  not  improve  his  condition, 
and  that  to  change  it,  was  to  make  it  worse.  His  eye  was 
not  to  be  dazzled  with  the  surfaces  of  things.  With  the 
earnestness  that  characterizes  all  noble  natures,  he  sought 
after  the  truth,  and,  by  the  gradually  increasing  light  of  religi- 
ous liberty,  saw  in  that  early  dawn,  the  shadows  of  super- 
stition beginning  to  grow  pale  and  dim.  He  loved  the  tra- 
ditions, the  institutions,  the  customs,  immemorial  as  the  green 
old  oaks  and  flowering  hedges  of  his  native  island.  Yet, 
like  John  Hampden,  Herbert  Pelham  and  Sir  Harry  Vane, 
though  he  lingered  over  the  past  with  a  loving  step, 
his  gaze  was  still  fixed  on  the  future.  He  was  one 
of  the  few  men  of  that  harsh,  intolerant  age,  whose 
large  natures — incapable  of  bigotry,  whether  lurking  un- 
der the  folds  of  the  surplice,  or  haunting  the  secret 
chambers  of  the  conventicle — soared  above  the  poisonous 
atmosphere  of  political  strifes,  and  panted  for  a  liberty, 
religious  and  civil,  that  should  strike  its  roots  in  a  deep, 
fresh  soil,  and  bear  those  "golden  apples"  that  in  later 
years,  requiting  the  culture  of  such  hands  as  his,  were  to 
blush  upon  the  branches  of  the  Hesperian  tree.  Perhaps,  too, 
he  foresaw,  and  was  not  unwilling  to  avoid  for  himself  and 
his  children,  the  baleful  fires  of  that  bloody  conflict,  so  soon 
to  light  up  the  English  coast — the  struggle  between  the  old 
and  the  new,  between  prerogative  and  progress,  of  which  all 
Europe  was  to  "ring  from  side  to  side" — a  struggle  destruc- 
tive as  the  whirlwind,  yet  tending  to  purify  the  moral  atmos- 
phere, as  all  great  convulsions  of  the  elements  are  said  to 
vitalize  the  air. 

In  1636,  Mr.  Wyllys  sent  over  his  steward,  William  Gib- 
bons, with  twenty  men,  to  purchase  and  prepare  for  him,  in 
Hartford,  an  estate  suitable  to  his  rank,  erect  a  house,  and 
make  preparations  for  the  reception  of  himself  and  his  fami- 


138  HISTORY   OP   CONNECTICUT. 

ly.  Two  years  after  this,  he  bade  adieu  to  the  home  of  his 
childhood,  and  sailed  for  America.  He  arrived  in  Connecti- 
cut early  enough  to  give  to  the  framers  of  the  Constitution 
of  1639,  the  benefit  of  his  sound  judgment  and  elevated 
views,  and  was  elected  a  magistrate  annually  under  it,  from 
the  time  when  the  freemen  adopted  it  by  acclamation,  to  the 
day  of  his  death.  In  1641,  he  was  elected  deputy  governor, 
and  in  1642  he  was  made  governor  of  Connecticut. 

He  led  a  calm,  pure  life,  far  enough  elevated  above  the 
level  of  his  contemporaries  to  point  them  where  to  look  for 
the  ideal  of  human  excellence,  yet  near  enough  to  stretch 
forth  a  benevolent  hand  to  those  whose  vision  was  less  keen, 
and  whose  feeble  steps  faltered  as  they  ascended  the  rugged 
hill.  Peace  to  his  venerable  dust,  which,  without  a  monu- 
ment, sleeps  near  that  of  Hooker,  in  the  old  cemetry  of 
Hartford,  guarded  by  the  piety  of  the  thousands  who  inhabit 
the  city,  and  who  have  succeeded  to  the  noblest  inheritance 
in  the  world — a  spotless  public  life. 

The  Charter  Oak  Place,  where  he  lived  and  died,  with  all 
its  thrilling  historical  associations,  has  none  that  should  tempt 
the  lover  of  the  heroic  past  more  eagerly  to  visit  its  shades, 
than  that  it  was  the  home  of  Wyllys. 

In  the  summer  of  1645,  the  Narragansett  Indians  again 
violated  their  treaty  with  the  English,  in  commencing  hostil- 
ities against  Uncas.*  They  went  into  the  heart  of  the  Mo- 
hegan  country,  and  attacked  Uncas  at  his  fort.  They  killed 
his  men  and  threatened  to  annihilate  both  him  and  his  tribe. 
So  bent  were  they  on  the  destruction  of  their  old  enemies, 
that  Connecticut  and  New  Haven  were  obliged  to  send  each 
a  detachment  of  soldiers,  to  keep  the  Mohegan  country  from 
being  overrun  by  the  invaders. 

Governor  Winthrop,  in  alarm,  called  a  meeting  of  the 
commissioners  to  convene  at  Boston,  on  the  28th  of  June. 
As  soon  as  that  body  had  assembled,  they  sent  couriers  into 

*  See  Bancroft,  i.  211,  who  claims  that  the  "temporary  truce"  had  ex- 
pired when  the  Narragansetts  marched  after  Uncas.  The  action  of  the  commis- 
eloners,  however,  seems  to  forbid  such  a  conclusion. 


[1645.]  gibbons'   EXPEDITION".  139 

the  territories  of  the  contending  tribes,  proposing  that  their 
sachems  should  repair  to  Boston,  and  refer  their  causes  of 
quarrel  to  the  decision  of  the  commissioners,  as  had  been 
done  before.  The  sachems  at  first  seemed  disposed  to  listen 
favorably  to  the  proposal,  but  at  last  declared  they  would 
neither  go  nor  send.  The  Narragansett  chiefs  were  highly 
excited.  They  insulted  the  messengers,  and  said  very  rough 
things  of  the  English.  One  of  them  said  "  he  would  kill  their 
cattle  and  pile  them  in  heaps,  and  that  an  Englishman  should 
no  sooner  step  beyond  his  door  than  the  Indians  would  kill 
him ;  that  whoever  began  war  he  would  continue  it,  and 
nothing  would  satisfy  him  but  the  head  of  Uncas." 

Affairs  now  assumed  such  a  threatening  attitude,  that 
Roger  Williams,  who  was  usually  the  apologist  of  the  Indians 
and  especially  of  the  Narragansetts,  wrote  to  the  commis- 
sioners, that  an  Indian  war  was  impending.  After  a  careful 
consultation,  the  commissioners  made  a  formal  proclama- 
tion of  war,  and  ordered  that  three  hundred  men  should  be 
forthwith  levied,  and  placed  under  the  command  of  Maj. 
Edward  Gibbons.  Capt.  Mason  had  the  immediate  com- 
mand of  the  Connecticut  and  New  Haven  forces.  Hum- 
phrey Atherton,  with  forty  men,  was  sent  forward  with  all 
haste  to  meet  Mason  at  Mohegan,  and  place  himself  under 
his  direction,  the  better  to  defend  Uncas  until  the  whole 
army  should  unite  their  strength  under  Maj.  Gibbons. 

Gibbons  was  ordered  not  only  to  protect  Uncas,  but  to  in- 
vade the  country  of  the  Narragansetts  and  Nihanticks,  and 
cut  off  their  supplies.  He  was  authorized,  however,  to  offer 
them  peace,  and  to  make  a  treaty  with  them,  should  they  be 
disposed  to  fall  in  with  any  reasonable  proposals.  If  they 
were  disposed  to  fight,  he  was  to  give  them  battle.  If  they 
would  neither  fight  nor  come  to  any  amicable  terms,  but  on 
the  other  hand  fled  before  him,  he  was  ordered  to  build  forts 
in  the  territory  of  both  these  hostile  tribes,  and  there  ac- 
cumulate the  corn  belonging  to  them  gathered  from  far  and 
near.* 

*  Records  of  the  Commissioners. 


140  HISTORY  OF   CONNECTICUT. 

Before  hostilities  had  been  decided  upon  by  the  English, 
the  Narragansetts  had  sent  a  present  to  governor  Win- 
throp  at  Boston,  asking  for  peace  with  the  colonies,  but 
begging  the  privilege  of  fighting  with  Uncas,  and  avenging 
the  death  of  Miantinomoh.  The  governor  did  not  accept 
this  present,  but  allowed  it  to  be  left  in  his  keeping.  The 
commissioners  sent  it  back  with  a  message  to  Canonicus, 
Pessacus,  and  the  other  sachems  of  the  Narragansetts  and 
Nihanticks,  that  they  would  not  accept  their  gift,  nor  permit 
them  to  be  at  peace  until  they  had  atoned  for  their  past  of- 
fenses, and  given  pledges  for  their  future  good  behavior. 
The  messengers  who  were  entrusted  with  this  delicate  com- 
mission soon  returned  to  Boston,  with  tidings  that  Pessacus, 
the  great  war-chief  of  the  Narragansetts,  and  other  sachems, 
were  coming  to  treat  with  the  commissioners  for  a  peace. 

The  Indian  ambassadors,  with  Pessacus  at  their  head,  soon 
arrived  at  Boston,  in  great  state,  attended  by  a  large  retinue, 
and  presented  themselves  before  the  commmissioners.  They 
denied  that  they  had  been  guilty  of  violating  their  faith  in 
breaking  the  most  solemn  treaties,  and  urged  their  old  claim 
of  the  ransom  alleged  to  have  been  taken  by  Uncas,  with 
astonishing  pertinacity,  if  it  was  indeed  a  false  claim.  They 
offered  to  bind  themselves  again,  to  refrain  from  waging  war 
with  their  hated  enemy,  until  the  next  planting-time. 

The  commissioners  assured  them  that  it  was  idle  to  talk 
of  such  a  thing — that  they  would  be  trifled  with  no  longer — 
that  the  time  had  come  for  an  ultimate  decision,  either  for 
lasting  peace  or  bloody  war,  and  it  was  better  that  they  should 
at  once  understand  each  other.  They  said  it  was  useless  for 
the  Indians  to  pretend  that  they  had  kept  faith  with  the  col- 
onies, as  proofs  of  their  perfidy  were  too  glaring  and  abund- 
ant to  be  truthfully  met,  and  that  falsehoods  could  stand 
them  in  stead  no  longer. 

The  Indians  finally  acknowledged  their  treachery  in  refer- 
ence to  the  treaties,  and  one  of  the  principal  chiefs  took  a 
stick,  and  humbly  presented  it  to  the  commissioners,  as  a 
symbol  of  submission,  and  a  token  that  he  only  waited  for 


[1645.]  SETTLEMENT  OF  FARMINGTON.  141 

the  English  to  dictate  the  terms  of  a  new  treaty,  at  their 
own  discretion. 

The  commissioners  decided  that  the  new  treaty  should 
be  substantially  upon  the  following  terms :  that  the  Indians 
should  pay  to  them  two  hundred  fathom  of  white  wampum ; 
restore  to  Uncas  all  the  captives  and  canoes  that  they  had 
taken  from  him ;  that  they  would  maintain  perpetual  peace 
with  the  English,  and  with  all  their  allies,  and  that  they 
would  give  hostages  for  the  faithful  performance  of  all  these 
stipulations.  With  much  reluctance  the  Indians  finally 
signed  the  articles  embracing  these  conditions.*  But  fear 
impelled  them  to  do  it,  as  they  knew  that  English  troops 
were  now  in  the  country,  and  ready  to  enforce  even  more 
stringent  demands. 

As  early  as  1640,  some  of  the  most  enterprising  citizens 
of  Hartford  commenced  a  settlement  at  a  place  about  ten 
miles  west  of  the  city,  upon  the  alluvial  meadows  of  the 
Tunxis  river.  They  gave  to  their  little  neighborhood  the  name 
of  the  brimming  river,  that  swept  past  their  log-houses,  and 
enlivened  the  long  summer  days,  as  it  wound  through  the 
meadows,  where  haymakers  kept  it  company.  It  was  not 
incorporated  until  1645,  when  it  was  called  Farmington. 
Almost  all  the  inhabitants »were  planters.  The  township 
was  not  far  from  fifteen  miles  square. f  This  territory  has 
been,  from  time  to  time,  divided  between  the  mother  town 
and  its  offshoots.  Out  of  it  have  sprung  the  towns  of  South- 
ington,  Berlin,  Bristol,  Burlington  and  Avon.  The  pioneers 
who  purchased  this  tract  of  the  original  proprietors,  the 
Tunxis  Indians,  and  begun  the  plantation,  were  among  the 
best  families  of  Hartford,  and  their  descendants  have  main- 
tained to  an  unusual  degree  their  marked  traits  of  character. 

In  1646,  when  the  commissioners  of  the  united  colonies 
met  at  New  Haven,  the  old  difficulties  between  the  colonies 
of  New  Haven  and  Connecticut  on  the  one  part,  and  the 
Dutch  at  New  Amsterdam  on  the  other,  were  presented  to 
their  consideration.      It   appears   that  the  Dutch  governor, 

*  Bancroft,  i.  313.  t  Pease  and  Niles'  Gazetteer. 


142  HISTORY  OF  CONNECTICUT. 

Kieft,  had  written  a  spirited  letter  to  governor  Eaton,  of 
New  Haven,  in  which  he  took  occasion  to  reassert  the 
claims  of  the  States  General  to  the  coast  of  Connecticut  in 
very  positive  terms.  He  charged  the  English  with  violating 
ancient  treaties  existing  between  the  two  nations,  under 
which  they  respectively  claimed,  and  with  having  acted  in 
defiance  as  well  of  the  law  of  nations  as  of  natural  justice. 
He  called  them  "breakers  of  the  peace,  and  disturbers  of 
the  public  tranquillity,"  and  threatened  them  with  war  if  they 
did  not  give  up  the  places  belonging  to  his  jurisdiction  that 
they  had  usurped,  and  make  amends  for  the  losses  that  his 
government  had  sustained  on  account  of  their  encroach- 
ments. 

Governor  Eaton  made  answer  that  the  colony  of  New 
Haven  had  never  dispossessed  the  Dutch  of  any  of  their 
lands,  or  disturbed  them  in  the  enjoyment  of  any  of  their 
rights.  He  ended  by  proposing  to  leave  all  differences  to  be 
arbitrated  by  unbiased  men,  either  in  Europe  or  America. 

Connecticut  also  made  complaint  against  the  Dutch  of 
Good  Hope,  charging  them  with  acting  in  opposition  to  the 
authorities  of  the  colony,  and  especially  in  harboring  an  In- 
dian woman,  who  was  both  a  fugitive  from  justice  and  a  run- 
away servant  of  one  of  the  citizans  of  Hartford.* 

The  commissioners  of  the  united  colonies,  in  reference  to 
these  alleged  wrongs,  wrote  a  letter  to  governor  Kieft,  not 
much  calculated  I  should  think,  to  conciliate  him.  This  letter 
recites  at  length  all  the  claims  of  the  two  colonies,  Connecti- 
cut and  New  Haven,  and  alludes  in  no  very  gentle  terms, 
to  the  behavior  of  the  dignitary  to  whom  it  was  addressed. 
It  is  never  pleasant  to  be  told  of  one's  faults,  and  the  aver- 
sion that  we  all  feel  to  it,  is  much  enhanced  when  the  censor 

*  For  a  more  particular  account  of  this  controversy,  the  reader  is  referred  to 
page  253,  of  that  beautiful  work  entitled  "  Hartford  in  the  Olden  Time,"  by 
ScAEVA. — an  author  who  seems  first  to  have  entertained  the  thought  that  our  local 
histories  could  be  invested  with  some  other  interest  than  that  of  frigid  details,  and 
who  never  forgets  what  the  Greeks  taught  the  world,  that  a  muse  presides  over 
history  as  well  as  song.  His  work  is  substantially  a  history  of  Connecticut,  dur- 
ing the  first  few  years  of  her  existence. 


[1646.]  GOVERNOR   KIEFT.  -        143 

is  supposed  to  be  our  enemy.  This  epistle  certainly  lacked 
one  characteristic  of  a  modern  diplomatic  paper.  It  could 
not  be  said  to  say  one  thing  and  mean  another. 

Another  letter  was  ordered  to  be  written  and  sent  to  the 
same  functionary,  complaining  that  the  Dutch  traders  were 
badly  in  arrears  in  their  accounts  with  the  English,  and  re- 
fused to  pay,  and  that  he  had  aided  his  subjects  in  withhold- 
ing payment. 

At  the  purport  of  these  two  letters,  his  excellency  of  New 
Netherlands  was  greatly  incensed.  He  met  all  the  charges 
contained  in  them  with  a  flat  denial,  couched  in  the  very 
strongest  terms  that  he  could  frame,  which  he  embraced  in 
two  corresponding  documents,  and  sent  to  New  Haven  by 
the  messenger  who  had  been  employed  by  the  commissioners. 
The  affair  of  the  Indian  woman  appeared  to  inflame  him 
most,  for  he  honored  that  with  a  special  traverse.  With  re- 
gard to  the  other  allegations,  he  contented  himself  with  say- 
ing that  they  were  untrue,  and  that  he  would  submit  them  to 
the  arbitrament  of  nobody  in  Europe  or  America.  The 
mildest  thing  that  he  would  do,  unless  he  met  with  better 
treatment  from  the  English,  was  to  avenge  himself  by  an  ap- 
peal to  arms.  In  his  excited  state  of  mind,  he  used  a  very 
bold  figure  of  speech,  likening  the  commissioners  to  "eagles 
that  soar  aloft  and  despise  the  little  fly."  He  denied  the  right 
of  the  English  to  any  part  of  the  coast  of  Connecticut,  and 
especially  to  New  Haven,  the  very  name  of  which  he  ignored, 
adhering  to  the  old  Dutch  name  of  "  Red  Mount."  "  We 
protest,"  he  said  in  conclusion,  "  against  all  your  commis- 
sioners met  at  Red  Mount,  as  against  breakers  of  the  common 
league,  and  also  infringers  of  the  rights  of  the  lords,  the 
states,  our  superiors,  in  that  you  have  dared  without  our  ex- 
press and  special  consent,  to  hold  your  general  meeting  within 
the  limits  of  New  Netherlands."* 

To  these  letters  the  commissioners  made  a  very  curt  reply, 
the  substance  of  which  was,  that  the  exaggerated  strain  of  his 
correspondence  was  no  more  than  was  to  be  expected  from  him. 

*  Letter  of  Kieft  on  the  Records  of  the  United  Colonies. 


144  HISTOET  OF  CONNECTICUT. 

The  Connecticut  river  Indians,  this  year,  were  unusually 
troublesome.  Sequasson,  one  of  their  chiefs,  conceived  the 
design  of  murdering  governor  Haynes,  governor  Hopkins, 
and  Mr.  Whiting,  one  of  the  magistrates.  He  hired  a  Wa- 
ranoke  Indian  to  execute  the  plot.  The  consideration  to  be 
paid  was  a  number  of  wampum-girdles.  But  after  he  had 
received  the  price  of  blood,  he  went  deliberately  to  Hartford, 
and  betrayed  his  employer.  The  Windsor  Indians  at  about 
the  same  time  did  the  inhabitants  of  Windsor  much  damage, 
by  burning  up  large  quantities  of  their  personal  property. 
The  magistrates  issued  a  warrant,  and  arrested  the  Indian 
whom  they  supposed  to  be  the  author  of  this  mischief  but 
the  Indians  rescued  him  from  the  hands  of  the  officers  with 
violence.* 

The  commissioners  in  session  at  New  Haven,  sent  a  mes- 
sage to  Sequasson,  citing  him  to  appear  before  them,  and 
make  answer  to  the  charges  against  him.  But  the  cunning 
savage  thought  it  best  to  keep  out  of  harm's  way.  The 
Indians  were  subject  to  strange  paroxysms  of  mischief, 
that  would  break  out  suddenly  and  take  possession  of 
them  like  physical  diseases.  In  reading  the  best  authen- 
ticated accounts  of  their  behavior,  the  descriptions  that  we 
meet  with  in  the  New  Testament  of  those  who  were  under 
the  influence  of  devils,  are  constantly  forced  upon  the  mind. 
On  such  occasions,  their  passions  led  them  whithersoever 
Ihey  would. 

The  IMohawks,  now  that  the  Pequots  were  exterminated, 
had  the  field  to  themselves,  and  spent  their  time  in  waging 
war  with  the  eastern  tribes,  and  collecting  tribute  from  them. 
They  had  sagacity  enough  to  keep  on  friendly  terms  with 
the  English,  and  confined  their  depredations  to  the  Indians. 
Their  tax-gatherers  were  so  punctual  in  their  annual  visita- 
tions, that  those  who  paid  them  tribute  knew  when  to  expect 
them.  They  knew,  too,  that  an  armed  force  usually  followed 
these  leeches,  to  see  that  none  of  the  subjects  departed  from 
their  allegiance. 

*  Trumbull,  i.  158,  159. 


THE  PHANTOM  SHIP.  145 

Some  years  after  Milford  was  settled  by  the  English,  a 
company  of  Mohawks  came  within  the  borders  of  the  town, 
and  secreted  themselves  in  a  swamp,  where  they  awaited  an 
opportunity  of  making  an  attack  upon  the  Milford  Indians. 
Some  Englishmen  saw  the  Mohawks,  and  were  friendly 
enough  to  inform  their  swarthy  neighbors  of  their  danger. 
They  immediately  raUied  in  great  numbers,  raised  the  war- 
whoop,  and  rushing  suddenly  upon  the  Mohawks,  gained  a 
complete  victory.  Among  the  prisoners  was  a  stout  Mo- 
hawk warrior,  whom  the  conquerors  decided  to  kill  by  fam- 
ine and  torture.  They  stripped  him  naked,  and  having  tied 
him  to  a  stake,  left  him  in  the  tall  grass  of  the  salt  meadows, 
to  be  eaten  up  by  the  mosquitoes.  An  Englishman,  named 
Hine,  who  found  the  poor  wretch  in  this  deplorable  condition, 
shocked  at  this  barbarous  mode  of  torture,  cut  the  thongs 
from  his  limbs,  and  set  him  at  liberty.  He  then  invited  him 
to  his  house,  gave  him  food,  and  helped  him  to  escape.  This 
kind  act  was  never  forgotten  by  the  Mohawks.  They 
treated  the  English  of  Milford  ever  after  with  marked 
civility,  and  did  many  kind  and  friendly  acts,  that  testified 
their  gratitude  towards  their  deliverer  and  his  family.* 

It  has  been  said  that  the  principal  inhabitants  of  New  Ha- 
ven were  originally  engaged  in  commerce  and  merchandise. 
They  soon  found  that  the  unpeopled  wastes  of  New  Eng- 
land offered  little  opportunity  for  them  to  pursue  their  old 
occupations.  The  estates  that  they  had  brought  with  them, 
declined  in  value,  and  left  them  disappointed  and  compara- 
tively helpless.  Their  settlement  at  Delaware  had  proved 
a  heavy  burden  to  them.  Besides,  they  had  long  waited  in 
vain  for  the  arrival  of  certain  wealthy  gentlemen,  who  had 
given  them  assurance  that  they  would  soon  join  them  and 
share  their  enterprise.  At  length,  despairing  of  any  such  re- 
lief, and  conscious  that  some  new  steps  must  be  taken  to  re- 
trieve their  sinking  fortunes,  some  of  their  most  enterprising 
merchants  united  their  resources  to  build  a  ship,  of  one  hun- 
dred and  fifty  tons  burden,  and  fit  her  out  for  England.     They 

*  Lambert. 
10 


146  HISTORY  OF  CONNECTICUT. 

freighted  her  with  furs,  corn,  and  plate,  almost  all  their  little 
stock  of  merchantable  wealth.  She  had  also  seventy  souls 
on  board,  including  Gregson,  Lamberton,  and  some  other 
men  of  note  in  the  colony. 

It  was  in  the  stark  month  of  January,  and  the  harbor  was 
frozen  over  so  firmly  that  the  citizens  were  obliged  to  cut  a 
way  for  her  through  the  ice,  with  saws,  for  three  miles, 
before  she  was  free  to  float  in  the  water.  Mr.  Davenport, 
and  many  others  who  were  to  stay  behind,  went  out  upon 
the  ice  and  bade  her  adieu.  As  he  stretched  his  hands  to- 
wards heaven  in  prayer,  the  reverend  man  said,  doubtingly, 
"  Lord,  if  it  be  thy  pleasure  to  bury  these  our  friends,  in  the 
bottom  of  the  sea,  they  are  thine — save  them  !" 

They  watched  her  gallant  sails  and  trembling  keel,  till 
their  eyes  were  blinded  with  tears.  Ships  arrived  one  after 
another  from  England,  but  they  brought  no  tidings  to  the 
people  of  New  Haven,  of  the  bark  that  bore  from  their  sight 
so  much  that  was  dear  to  them.  Months  passed,  each  dropping 
its  heavy  plummet  deeper  than  its  predecessor,  into  the  abyss 
of  mystery  and  gloom  that  shrouded  the  fate  of  the  ship.  At 
last  inquiries  ceased  to  be  whispered  by  the  wife,  the  father, 
the  friend  ;  and  the  heart  spoke  its  agonized  meaning  only  in 
the  quivering  lip  and  the  fixed  eye.  Still  they  waited  for 
tidings,  and  perhaps  beneath  the  calm  exterior  of  despair,  there 
trembled  a  pulse  of  hope,  but  this  too,  died.  Then  succeeded 
another  long  period  of  silence. 

In  November,  1647,  those  who  embarked  in  the  ill-starred 
vessel  were  treated  as  deceased  persons,  and  their  estates 
went  through  the  due  course  of  administration.  Not  quite 
two  years  and  a  half  after  the  missing  ship  sailed,  one  pleas- 
ant afternoon  in  June,  as  the  sumbeams  lit  up  the  clouds  that 
still  lingered — the  lurid  curtains  of  a  thunder  storm  that  had 
spent  its  volleys  in  the  heavens — there  was  seen  on  the  level 
line  of  the  horizon,  hovering  over  the  harbor,  the  figure  of  a 
three-masted  ship.  Shadowy  at  first,  and  without  shroud  or 
tackle,  but  gradually  taking  on  a  fearful  distinctness,  until 
her  full  sails  swelled  in  the  summer  breeze ;  and  on  her  up- 


[1649.]  THE  PHANTOM  SHIP.  147 

per  deck  there  stood  the  semblance  of  a  man,  a  solitary  form. 
Though  the  wind  blew  from  the  north,  she  made  her  course 
bravely  against  it  for  a  full  half  hour,  until  the  little  children 
ran  and  cried  as  she  drew  near,  "  There's  a  brave  ship." 
The  weird  bark  was  the  exact  counterpart  of  the  lost  one. 
For  many  minutes  she  remained,  until  the  anxious  and  the 
curious  were  assembled,  to  welcome  her  home.  And  there 
upon  her  deck,  its  left  hand  pressed  against  its  side,  and  its 
right  hand  grasping  a  sword,  stood  the  mournful  shape,  point- 
ing silently  towards  the  sea.  Finally,  a  cloud  of  smoke 
arose,  faint  at  first,  but  darkening  as  it  wreathed  its  sombre 
folds  around  the  Phantom  Ship  and  the  armed  spectre,  till 
both  were  swallowed  up  from  mortal  sight ! 

It  has  not  come  down  to  us  what  was  the  name  of  the  ves- 
sel. It  is  a  wild  legend,  and  is  not  without  a  strange  interest. 
The  reader  must  settle  for  himself  the  question,  whether  it  is 
fabulous  or  true.* 

During  the  year  1649,  the  chiefs  of  the  Narragansetts  and 
Nihanticks  were  again  cited  to  appear  before  the  commis- 
sioners at  Boston,  to  answer  for  not  having  kept  their  last 
treaty  with  the  English.  Ninigret  obeyed  the  summons, 
but  Pessacus  sent  in  an  excuse.  He  would  be  very  glad  to 
go  to  Boston,  but  he  was  too  unwell  to  undertake  such  a 
journey.  He  further  pleaded  the  terms  of  the  late  treaty 
were  very  hard  upon  his  tribe,  and  that  they  could  not  com- 
ply with  them.  He  claimed  that  they  were  void,  too,  from 
having  been  obtained  by  duress,  while  he  was  in  Boston,  and 
an  armed  force  of  Englishmen  marching  against  his  defense- 
less country.  However,  he  sent  two  deputies  to  represent 
him,  and  prepared  to  be  bound  by  whatever  Ninigret  should 
stipulate.  Ninigret  pleaded  the  cause  of  the  two  nations 
with  great  dignity  and  eloquence,  and  the  parties  at  last 
agreed  upon  terms  of  adjustment  satisfactory  to  all  concerned. 

The  tax  levied  upon  the  towns  soon  after  the  purchase  of 

*  The  Rev.  James  Piei"pont,  of  New  Haven,  who  was  a  firm  believer  in  the 
miraculous  nature  of  the  apparition,  wrote  an  interesting  account  of  it  at  the  request 
of  Cotton  Mather,  who  published  it  in  his  Magnalia, 


148  HISTORY  OF  CONNECTICUT. 

Saybrook  fort,  was  not  raised  by  the  inhabitants  of  Spring- 
field. The  General  Court  of  Massachusetts  denied  the  right 
of  Connecticut  to  tax  this  town,  as  it  was  claimed  to  be 
within  the  jurisdiction  of  Massachusetts.  The  commis- 
sioners refused  at  first  to  make  any  order  in  the  matter,  as  it 
was  a  very  delicate  one,  and  had  not  been  particularly  re- 
ferred to  them  by  one  of  the  claimants,  but  suggested  that 
the  money  to  be  expended  upon  the  fort  was  for  the  benefit 
of  all  the  towns  upon  the  river.  After  the  action  of  the 
General  Court  of  Massachusetts,  and  after  the  resolutions 
had  been  passed,  the  commissioners,  upon  a  full  hearing,  de- 
cided the  question  as  well  as  they  could  by  ordering,  that  in- 
asmuch as  Springfield  enjoyed  the  benefit  of  the  fort,  she 
"  should  pay  the  impost  of  two  pence  per  bushel  for  corn,  and 
a  penny  on  the  pound  for  beaver ;"  but  that  the  parties  dis- 
puting the  right  to  lay  the  impost,  might  have  the  privilege 
afterwards  to  show  reasons  against  it. 

During  this  very  session,  John  Winthrop,  of  Pequot,  (now 
New  London,)  laid  claim  to  the  whole  country  of  the  West- 
ern Nihanticks,  embracing  a  large  part  of  the  present  town 
of  Lyme,  by  virtue  both  of  a  deed  of  purchase  and  a  deed  of 
gift  from  the  Indians.  Mr.  Winthrop  did  not  pretend  that 
he  had  any  paper  title,  but  offered  abundant  evidence  of  a 
fair  transfer  by  parol.  To  these  claims,  the  commissioners 
who  represented  Connecticut  made  answer,  that  Mr.  Win- 
throp's  pretended  purchase  was  without  date,  had  no  fixed 
boundaries,  and  that,  for  aught  that  appeared,  the  grantor 
had  himself  no  title  to  the  granted  premises ;  that  the  con- 
tract was  a  parol  one,  and  that  at  the  best  it  was  but  a 
vague,  loose  way  of  transferring  an  estate  in  lands ;  while  on 
the  other  hand,  Connecticut  owned  the  territory  by  right  of 
conquest.  The  decision  was,  at  the  request  of  Connecticut, 
postponed  to  a  later  day,  and  the  claim  was  never  afterwards 
presented  by  Mr.  Winthrop. 

Not  far  from  this  time — at  what  precise  date  is  not  known, 
but  probably  during  the  year  1648 — died  at  Saybrook  the 
Lady  Alice  Boteler,  since  and  still  known  as  Lady  Fen- 


LADY  FENWICK.  149 

wick.*  She  was  a  daughter  of  Sir  Edward  Apsley,  and 
married,  first,  Sir  John  Boteler,  and  after  his  death  became 
the  wife  of  Col.  George  Fenwick,  with  whom  she  sailed  for 
America.  Not  only  is  the  date  of  her  decease  unknown, 
but  not  a  circumstance  alluding  to  so  interesting  a  fact  has 
come  down  to  us.  Near  the  remains  of  the  old  fort,  proba- 
bly within  its  limits  as  it  was  first  built,  and  close  upon  the 
river-bank,  where  the  plaintive  murmurs  of  the  Connecticut 
blend  with  the  heavy  meanings  of  the  sea — upon  supporters 
that  seem  to  stoop  with  the  weight  of  their  burden — rests  a 
table  of  grey  sandstone,  bearing  a  scroll  without  an  in- 
scription or  a  name.  Yet  to  me,  as  I  looked  upon  it,  without 
a  tree  to  droop  over  it  in  summer,  or  screen  it  from  the  fierce 
winter  winds — without  a  flower  to  symbohze  the  beauty 
and  loveliness  of  the  high-born  sleeper — no  epitaph  could  have 
spoken  with  such  eloquence  as  the  silence  of  the  monument 
and  the  desolation  of  the  spot.  It  spoke  to  me,  as  it  may 
have  done  to  others,  of  the  crowning  excellence  and  glory  of  a 
woman's  love,  who  could  give  up  the  attractions  of  her  proud 
English  home,  the  peerless  circles  wherein  she  moved  and 
constituted  a  chief  fascination,  to  follow  her  husband  to  this 

*  Lady  Fenwick  was  a  daughter  of  Sir  Edward  Apsley,  of  Thackham.  Sir 
Edward  married  Eliza,  daughter  of  Edward  Elmes,  of  Lyford,  in  the  county  of 
Northampton,  and  had  children,  (1,)  Elizabeth,  who  married  Sir  Albert  Norton 
knight,  and  secretary  of  state;  (2,)  Edward,  living  at  Thackham  in  1634,  men- 
tioned in  Col.  Fenwick's  will  as  the  "  Uncle  "  of  his  daughters ;  (3,)  Alice,  who 
married,  first,  Sir  John  Boteler,  and  afterwards  George  Fenwick  ;  and  (4,)  Ann, 
who  married  Matthew  Caldecott,  of  Sherington,  in  the  county  of  Sussex.  Sir  John 
Boteler,  Lady  Fenwick's  first  husband,  was  the  eldest  son  of  Sir  Oliver  Boteler, 
of  Teston,  who  was  knighted  by  James  1st,  in  1604.  Sir  John  died  in  his  father's 
life  time.  Sir  John's  younger  brother,  William,  inherited  Sir  Oliver's  estate,  and 
was  created  a  baronet  by  Charles  1st,  in  1641.  He  espoused  the  cause  of  the  king 
in  the  civil  war,  and  was  killed  at  Cropedy  Bridge  in  June,  1644.  The  wife  of  Col. 
Fenwick  appears  always  to  have  retained  the  name  and  title  given  her  by  her  first 
husband.  The  receipt  given  for  her  monument  in  1679,  describes  it  as  the 
"Tomb  Stone  of  the  Lady  Alice  Boteler,  late  of  Saybrook."  (See  Saybrook 
Records.)  I  am  indebted  to  the  accomplished  editor  of  the  "  Colonial  Records  of 
Connecticut "  for  the  facts  above  recited,  as  I  am  for  many  other  favors  of  a  like 
character.  I  shall  add  nothing  to  his  reputation,  though  I  shall  do  myself  a  great 
pleasure,  when  I  say,  that  I  do  not  think  there  is  a  more  accurate  and  at  the  same 
time  philosophical  antiquarian  in  New  England, 


150  HISTORY  OF  CONNECTICUT. 

desolate  peninsula,  where  the  humble  houses  of  wood  within 
the  inclosure  of  the  fort,  opened  their  forbidding  doors  with 
a  grim  welcome  that  must  have  chilled  her  heart.  Here  she 
h"ngered  in  obscurity  till  she  died.  Perhaps  when  her  hus- 
band was  away  at  Hartford,  or  Boston,  as  he  often  was,  at- 
tending to  the  interests  of  Connecticut,  as  she  looked  off  up- 
on the  blue  waters,  her  eye  was  dimmed  with  tears  of  disap- 
pointment as  she  in  vain  sought  the  long  expected  sail  that 
was  to  waft  that  noble  coterie  of  lords  and  ladies,  knights, 
and  gentlemen,  to  Saybrook,  whither  they  had  promised  to 
flee  from  the  civic  strifes  that  beset  them  at  home.  But  that 
sail  was  only  seen  in  her  dreams,  and  the  towers  of  the  new 
city  that  was  to  have  sprung  up  under  the  plastic  touch  of 
the  patentees  of  Connecticut,  were  lost  with  the  other  fan- 
tasies of  the  night  in  the  glimmering  moon-beams  that  fell 
upon  her  startled  eyelids  through  the  frosted  window-panes. 
She  died  in  her  place  of  voluntary  exile.  Two  hundred 
years  have  rolled  away.  The  shrill  cry  of  the  plover  now  as 
then  pierces  the  ear  as  it  flies  over  the  spot.  But  the  rude 
fort,  with  its  walls  of  wood  and  earth,  is  gone.  The  Connec- 
ticut swarms  with  vessels  of  every  descinption,  filled  with  a 
free  population  that  need  no  cannon  at  the  mouth  of  the 
river,  as  in  that  iron  age,  to  guard  them  from  violence.  How 
much  can  be  learned  from  an  old,  solitary  tomb !  The  dead 
need  no  monument,  but  are  themseves  a  monument  of  the 
"dead  old  time."  Their  names,  when  uttered,  are  vital  as 
their  ashes  shall  be  on  the  morning  of  the  resurrection.  But 
let  not  the  sons  of  a  state,  in  whose  bosom  sleeps  the  dust  of 
Alice  Apsley,  forget  that  the  forbidding  aspect  of  her  tomb, 
though  it  dishonors  not  her,  disgraces  them  ;  and  if  she  has 
left  no  other  claim  upon  their  affectionate  remembrance,  let 
them  bear  in  mind  that  she  was  at  least  the  wife  of  Fenwick ! 


V 


CHAPTER  VIII. 


FOUNDING   OF   NEW   LONDON. 


As  early  as  the  spring  of  1646,  under  the  auspices  of  the 
General  Court  of  Massachusetts,  Mr.  John  Winthrop,  jun., 
and  a  few  others,  had  already  begun  to  plant  the  fields  lying 
upon  Pequot  Harbor,  and  found  a  settlement  there.  Mr. 
Thomas  Peters,*  a  clergyman,  was  associated  with  Mr. 
Winthrop,  and  these  two  gentlemen  were  entrusted  with  the 
authority  of  framing  a  form  of  civil  government,  and  ad- 
ministering it,  until  further  orders. f  This  territory  was  for 
a  long  time  debated  ground,  as  has  been  before  stated :  Con- 
necticut claiming  both  by  virtue  of  a  grant  and  by  right  of. 
conquest,  and  Massachusetts  asserting  a  right  to  it  as  her 
share  of  the  conquered  country  of  the  Pequots.  Mr.  Peters 
did  not  stay  long  enough  in  the  new  settlement  to  lend  much 
aid  to  his  associate,  for  in  the  fall  of  1646  he  embarked  for 
England,  and  never  returned  to  America.  Mr.  Winthrop 
did  not  remove  his  family  from  Boston  until  the  fall  of  1646, 
when  he  sailed  with  his  wife  and  a  part  of  his  children,  to 
the  country  over  which  he  claimed  jurisdiction.  His  brother, 
Dean  Winthrop,  accompanied  him.  They  had  a  very  rough 
and  tedious  passage.  They  spent  that  winter  upon  Fisher's 
Island.  In  the  spring  of  1647,  Mr.  Winthrop  built  a  house 
upon  the  main-land  at  Pequot,  and  removed  his  whole  family 
thither.  The  place  was  also  called  Nameaugs.  This  was  the 
first  beginning  of  the  now  flourishing  city  of  New  London. 
Although  the  plantation  was  commenced  under  the  protec- 
tion of  Massachusetts,  yet  after  the  action  of  the  commis- 
sioners upon  the  question  of  jurisdiction  in  July  1647,  the 

*  This  gentleman  was  a  brotlaer  of  the  celebrated  Hugh  Peters,  and  was  him- 
self one  of  the  ejected  Puritan  divines  of  Cornwall,  England.  He  appears  to 
have  been  for  some  time  chaplain  to  Mr.  Fenwick,  and  to  the  garrison  at 
Saybrook. 

t  New  London  Kecords.    See  Miss  Caulkins'  History,  p.  45. 


152  HISTOEY  OF  CONNECTICUT. 

dominion  over  it  was  conceded  to  belong  to  Connecticut ; 
and  in  the  following  September,  the  court  gave  Mr.  Winthrop 
a  commission  "  to  execute  justice"  according  to  the  laws  of 
Connecticut,  "  and  the  rules  of  righteousness."  * 

At  the  session  of  the  General  Court  in  May  1649,  John 
Winthrop,  Esquire,  with  Thomas  Minor  and  Samuel  Lathrop 
as  assistants,  were  authorized  to  hold  a  court  in  the  town, 
with  jurisdiction  over  "  all  differences  among  the  inhabitants 
under  the  value  of  forty  shillings. "f  To  encourage  the  en- 
terprise of  the  first  settlers  of  New  London,  and  to  induce 
new  adventurers  to  take  up  their  abode  there,  the  court  at 
the  same  session  granted  the  inhabitants  exemption  from 
taxation  for  the  period  of  three  years.  The  court  also  ad- 
vised that  the  town  should  be  called  "  Fair  Harbor."  But 
the  planters  claimed  the  privilege  of  naming  the  place,  and 
finally,  after  some  changes  and  debates,  hit  upon  the  name 
of  New  London,  which  was  sanctioned  by  the  General 
Court. 

The  old  subject  of  alarm  and  debate,  the  perfidy  of  the 
Narragansett  and  Nihantick  Indians,  could  not  long  remain 
quiet.  These  Indians  were  resolved  not  to  pay  the  wam- 
pum that  they  had  agreed  again  and  again  to  do,  and  had 
hired  the  Pocomtocks  and  Mohawks  to  unite  with  them 
in  exterminating  the  hated  Mohegans.  The  Narragan- 
setts  and  Nihanticks  seci-eted  their  women  and  children  in 
swamps,  and  raised  an  army  of  eight  hundred  warriors,  who 
were  to  meet  their  allies,  the  Mohawks  and  the  Pocom- 
tocks, in  or  near  the  Mohegan  country.  The  governor  and 
council  sent  a  deputation,  at  the  head  of  whom  was  Thomas 
Stanton,  to  Pocomtock.  When  they  arrived  there  they 
found  the  Indians  of  the  place  in  arms  and  awaiting  the  ar- 
rival of  the  Mohawks. J  The  Indians  confessed  their  error, 
but  said  they  had  been  hired  by  the  Narragansetts.  It  was 
represented  to  Stanton,  that  the  Mohawks  had  four  hundred 
guns,  and  plenty  of  ammunition.     This  must  have  been  a 

*  J.  Hammond  Trumbull,  Colonial  Records,  i.  157.         t  lb.  i.  186. 
t  Trumbull,  i.  171. 


[1649.; 


INDIAN  DEPREDATIONS.  153 


very  exaggerated  account  of  their  resources.  It  is  not  likely 
that  the  whole  tribe  were  possessed  of  one-fourth  part  that 
number  of  guns.  Stanton  told  the  Indians  that  they  must 
not  march  into  the  Mohegan  territory,  and  that  the  English 
would  defend  Uncas  against  all  his  enemies,  and  would 
avenge  all  his  wrongs.  This  well-timed  threat  had  the  effect 
to  keep  the  Pocomtocks  at  home,  and  as  the  Mohawks  (if  in- 
deed they  had  ever  intended  to  aid  in  the  enterprise,)  were 
detained  in  their  own  country  by  some  troubles  that  they 
had  with  the  French,  the  Narragansetts  dared  not  take  it 
upon  themselves  to  chastise  the  Mohegans,  and  so  the  affair 
was  dropped  for  awhile.  But  the  Narragansetts  did  not  by 
any  means  remain  idle.  They  made  depredations  upon  the 
people  of  Rhode  Island,  broke  into  their  houses,  stole  their 
goods,  and  insulted  the  planters  in  every  conceivable  way. 
At  Warwick  they  killed  an  hundred  cattle,  and  threatened 
the  inhabitants  v»^ith  the  most  cruel  violence.  In  their  per- 
plexity and  alarm,  the  authorities  of  Rhode  Island  applied  to 
the  commissioners  to  be  admitted  into  the  confederacy. 
That  grave  body,  then  in  session  at  Plymouth,  made  answer 
in  substance,  that  the  whole  region  occupied  by  the  petition- 
ers was  included  in  the  Plymouth  patent,  and  of  right  ought 
to  be  under  the  jurisdiction  of  that  colony  ;  that  if  the  people 
of  Rhode  Island  would  consent  to  relinquish  their  claims  to 
an  independent  existence,  and  be  merged  in  the  colony  of 
New  Plymouth,  their  interests  would  be  tenderly  cared  for ; 
but  they  refused  to  treat  with  them  as  a  distinct  common- 
wealth.* However,  the  commissioners  sent  a  new  deputation 
to  the  Narragansetts  and  Nihanticks,  complaining  among 
other  things  of  the  outrages  that  they  had  committed  in 
Rhode  Island,  whose  people  had  never  wronged  them,  and 
warning  the  sachems  to  keep  their  men  under  better 
discipline. 

During  the  same  session,  the  old  affair  of  the  impost  for 
the  repair  of  the  fort  at  Saybrook  came  up  for  further  dis- 
cussion.    Massachusetts  complained  of  the  former  decision 

*  Records  of  the  United  Colonies. 


154  HISTORY  OF  CONNECTICUT. 

of  the  commissioners,  and  the  General  Court  of  that  colony 
had  appointed  a  committee  to  draw  up  an  answer  in  writing 
to  the  arguments  and  reasons  of  Governor  Hopkins  in  be- 
half of  Connecticut  at  the  previous  session.  Whatever  the 
merits  of  the  case  might  be,  this  answer  was  certainly  a 
very  able  one.  It  alleged  that  Springfield  was  under  no 
more  obligation  to  pay  for  the  repairs  of  the  fort,  than  any 
other  town  not  within  the  limits  of  Connecticut ;  that  if 
that  town  derived  any  benefit  from  the  fort,  it  was  an  inci- 
dental one,  and  was  no  greater  than  that  resulting  from  the 
same  source  to  any  of  the  towns  of  New  Haven  colony 
that  lay  along  the  coast.  It  urged  that  New  Haven  or 
Stamford  might  with  as  much  propriety  be  taxed  for  this 
object  as  Springfield  ;  and  added,  that  the  former  decision  of 
the  commissioners  ought  to  be  reviewed,  as  it  was  carried 
by  the  votes  of  the  members  from  New  Haven  colony,  who 
were  interested  parties  ;  and  also  because  it  was  induced  in 
part  by  the  alleged  provisions  of  the  Connecticut  patent,  a 
document  which  was  not  produced,  as  it  ought  to  have 
been  if  any  claim  of  title  was  set  up  under  it.* 

The  committee  in  behalf  of  Massachusetts  appear  to  have 
thought  it  advisable  to  let  it  be  known  how  powerful  their 
commonwealth  was,  and  how  little  dependent  it  was  upon 
the  other  colonies,  for  in  connection  with  this  argument 
they  took  occasion  to  intimate  that  Massachusetts  could  do 
as  she  liked  about  complying  with  the  order  of  the  commis- 
sioners in  this  matter  without  any  breach  of  faith,  and  com- 
plained of  the  inequality  of  the  representation  in  a  body 
where  such  small  powers  as  New  Haven  and  New  Plymouth 
had  an  equal  vote  with  Massachusetts.  The  committee  also 
said  that  this  impost  was  a  bone  of  contention  that  was 
likely  "  to  interrupt  their  happy  union  and  brotherly  love." 
They  greatly  feared  that  unless  this  stumbling-block  could 
be  removed,  they  might  be  tempted  "  to  help  themselves  in 
some  other  way." 

In    behalf  of  Connecticut,  Roger  Ludlow  and  governor 

*  See  Trumbull,  i.  172,  173. 


[1649.]  DEBATE  OE  THE   COMMISSIONERS.  155 

Hopkins  replied,  that  the  arguments  and  proofs  that  had 
been  the  basis  of  the  order  at  the  former  session,  had  not 
been  met  by  any  thing  that  was  set  forth  in  the  remons- 
trance of  Massachusetts,  and  that  they  were  indeed  un- 
answerable. After  alluding  briefly  to  what  had  been  said  in 
relation  to  the  old  claims  of  Massachusetts  in  1638,  with 
regard  to  the  exemption  from  impost  of  the  plantations  under 
their  alleged  jurisdiction,  and  the  change  of  circumstances 
which  ten  years  had  brought  about, — and  after  disposing 
summarily  of  the  question  of  a  priority  of  right  so  strongly 
urged  by  the  other  party,  they  go  on  to  speak  with  some 
sensitiveness  of  the  charge  made  against  the  commissioners 
of  founding  their  decree,  either  in  whole  or  in  part,  upon  the 
supposed  contents  of  the  Connecticut  patent,  a  paper  that 
they  had  never  seen.  These  gentlemen  argued  that  such  a 
charge  was  unreasonable,  and  without  foundation.  That  a 
copy  of  this  patent  was  certainly  brought  forward  at  the 
time  the  confederation  was  established ;  that  its  contents 
were  publicly  known,  and  that  the  gentlemen  of  Massachu- 
setts were  the  last  persons  in  the  world  who  could  plead 
ignorance  of  the  fact  that  it  had  recently  been  owned  by  the 
committee  of  parliament,  and  that  it  had  as  much  vitality 
and  power  over  the  territory  embraced  within  the  boundaries 
named  in  it,  as  had  the  patents  of  Massachusetts  and  Ply- 
mouth over  their  own.  To  make  good  what  they  said,  they 
backed  it  up  by  producing  a  copy  of  the  Connecticut  patent 
which  governor  Hopkins,  who  had  compared  it  with  the 
original,  offered  to  make  oath  to  as  authentic. 

In  regard  to  the  appeal  made  by  Massachusetts  to  the 
sympathies  and  fears  of  the  commissioners,  that  the  impost 
was  inexpedient  and  threatened  the  existence  of  the  amicable 
relations  and  brotherly  love  that  had  so  long  bound  the  four 
colonies  together,  they  answered  with  a  very  delicate  severi- 
ty, that  it  was  the  wish  of  Connecticut,  that  in  all  the  doings 
of  the  confederation,  "  truth  and  peace  might  embrace  each 
other  " — that  it  was  impossible  for  them  to  see  how  the  set- 
ting forth  of  the  claims  of  truth  and  righteousness  could  be 


156  HISTOEY  OF  CONNECTICUT. 

the  means  of  breaking  up  the  subsisting  relations  of  peace 
and  brotherly  love. 

Upon  a  full  hearing,  the  commissioners  again  decided  in 
favor  of  Connecticut. 

Previous  to  this,  on  the  27th  of  May,  1647,  his  Excellency, 
Peter  Stuyvesant,  governor  of  New  Netherlands,  arrived  at 
Manhattan  and  entered  upon  the  duties  of  his  office.*  The 
commissioners,  in  the  name  of  the  united  colonies  of  New 
England,  hastened  to  address  to  him  a  congratulatory  letter 
upon  his  accession  to  the  government.  In  this  letter  they 
also  took  occasion  to  inform  him  that  the  Dutch  traders  had 
been  in  the  habit  of  selling  firearms  and  ammunition  to  the 
Indians,  and  sometimes  within  the  boundaries  of  the  Eng- 
lish plantations,  and  begged  him  to  put  an  end  to  this  ill- 
judged  and  dangerous  traffic.  They  also  made  complaint  of 
the  imposts  laid  by  the  Dutch,  which  they  said,  fettered  the 
freedom  of  trade.  The  letter  also  complained  of  seizures 
made  by  the  Dutch  of  English  vessels  and  goods. 

His  Excellency  of  New  Netherlands  made  no  answer  to 
these  complaints,  and  it  will  appear  from  what  followed  that 
he  gave  very  little  heed  to  them.  Perhaps  he  thought, 
though  I  am  not  aware  that  he  has  left  us  any  record  of  his 
reflections  on  this  subject,  that  congratulation  and  remon- 
strance might  have  afforded  materials  for  two  distinct  com- 
munications. Be  that  as  it  may,  he  evidently  disregarded 
the  complaints,  for  in  the  year  1648  he  caused  a  vessel  be- 
longing to  Mr.  Westerhouse,  a  Dutch  merchant  and  planter 
of  New  Haven,  to  be  seized  while  she  was  riding  at  anchor  in 
the  harbor.f  Westerhouse  stated  his  grievance  to  the  com- 
missioners, who  espoused  his  cause  as  that  of  the  united  col- 
onies, and  at  once  wrote  a  letter  to  governor  Stuyvesant,  ex- 
pressing in  the  strongest  terms  their  hon'or  of  this  insult  of- 
fered to  the  English  colonies,  and  wrong  done  to  an  innocent 
private  citizen.  They  again  took  occasion  to  "protest 
against  the  claim  of  the  Dutch  to  all  the  lands,  rivers,  and 
streams  from  Cape  Henlopen  to  Cape  Cod,"  while  they  re- 
*  See  Brodhead,  i.  433.  t  Trumbull,  i.  175 ;  Brodhead,  i.  496. 


[1649.]       COERESPONDElSrCE  WITH  GOV.   STUYVESANT.  157 

iterated  the  oft-assailed  right  of  the  united  colonies  to  all 
these  plantations  and  domains  held  by  the  double  title  of 
grant  from  the  British  crown,  and  of  purchase  from  the  In- 
dians, the  native  proprietors  of  the  soil. 

The  seizure  of  this  ship  from  one  of  their  own  harbors 
they  represented  to  be  an  atrocious  and  unparalleled  outrage, 
■which  they  neither  could  nor  would  suffer  to  pass  without 
some  redress.  They  thought  the  letters  that  he  had  written 
to  them  and  to  the  governors  of  Massachusetts  and  New 
Haven,  were  couched  in  a  phraseology  so  mysterious  and 
equivocal  that  it  was  impossible  to  understand  them.  They 
begged  him  to  be  less  oracular  and  more  explicit.  They  in- 
sisted upon  the  necessity  of  a  meeting  between  him  and  them 
for  the  purpose  of  coming  to  a  more  full  understanding.  Un- 
til there  was  some  such  adjustment,  they  said  the  Dutch  mer- 
chants and  marines  should  enjoy  no  privileges  in  the  New 
England  harbors  or  plantations,  either  of  anchoring,  search- 
ing or  seizing,  more  than  the  English  did  at  Manhattan ;  and 
if  upon  search  they  should  find  arms  or  ammunition  on  board 
any  Dutch  ship,  which  were  designed  to  be  sold  to  the  In- 
dians within  the  borders  of  the  united  colonies,  they  would 
seize  them  "until  further  inquiry  and  satisfaction  should  be 
made."  The  epistle  closed  in  a  very  high  tone,  from  which 
the  governor  of  New  Netherlands  might  readily  infer  that 
unless  he  saw  the  error  of  his  ways,  it  would  soon  be  neces- 
sary for  him  to  vindicate  them  by  force  of  arms.* 

The  murder  of  Mr.  John  Whitmore,  in  1648,  at  Stam- 
ford, and  the  discovery  of  an  old  murder  of  Mr.  Cope  and 
a  part  of  his  crew  upon  Long  Island,  both  of  which  were 
committed  by  the  Indians,  occasioned  much  uneasiness  in 
the  colonies  of  Connecticut  and  New  Haven. 

In  the  year  1647,  the  old  fort  at  Say  brook,  built  by  Gardiner, 
under  the  direction  of  Winthrop,  by  some  unfortunate  ac- 
cident took  fire  and  was  burned  to  ashes.  In  May,  1649, 
the  General  Court  ordered  "  that  there  shall  be  a  dwelhng- 
house  erected  at  Saybrook  about  the  middle  of  the  new  fort, 

*  Record  of  the  United  Colonies. 


158  HISTOET  OF  CONNECTICUT. 

at  the  charge  and  for  the  service  of  the  commonwealth."* 
The  building  of  a  new  fort  was  also  prosecuted  with  vigor. 
During  the  same  year,  1649,  the  Indians  upon  Long  Island 
committed  at  Southold  some  terrible  murders.  The  Narra- 
gansetts  and  Nihanticks  were  by  no  means  inactive.  They 
had  remained  quiet  as  long  as  they  could  restrain  their  dia- 
bolical passions ;  but  at  last  their  hatred  of  Uncas  broke 
forth.  They  had  been  thwarted  so  often  in  their  attempts  to 
make  war  upon  the  Mohegan  chief,  that  they  now  deter- 
mined to  assassinate  him.  With  this  view  they  confided 
their  secret  to  a  trusty  Indian,  who  undertook,  for  a  reward, 
to  accomplish  the  murder.  The  assassin  went  on  board  a 
vessel  in  the  Thames,  where  Uncas  was,  and  stabbed  him  in 
the  breast.  He  meant  without  doubt  to  kill  him,  and  for  a 
long  time  it  was  thought  that  the  chief  would  die  of  the 
wound.  But  he  at  last  recovered,  and  that  too  in  due  time 
to  present  himself  before  the  commissioners,  exhibit  his  scars, 
tell  over  again  his  old  story  about  the  Mohawks,  reiterate  his 
complaints  against  his  enemies,  whom  he  meekly  represented 
as  thirsting  for  innocent  blood,  and  beg  that  as  he  had  never 
deserted  the  English  in  times  of  peril,  they  would  requite  his 
friendly  services  by  extending  to  him  their  protection.  All 
that  he  appeared  to  want  was  justice,  and  he  certainly  had 
much  occasion  to  congratulate  himself  upon  his  good  luck, 
that  his  prayers  in  this  respect  were  not  answered.  How- 
ever, it  cannot  be  denied  that  he  told  the  truth  when  he  said 
that  he  had  always  been  faithful  to  the  English.  Ninigret 
was  cited  to  appear  and  clear  himself  of  the  charge  preferred 
against  him  by  Uncas,  that  he  and  Pessacus  had  hired  the  as- 
sassin. It  is  probable  that  this  charge  was  substantially  true, 
as  the  wretched  murderer  himself,  we  are  told,  gave  the  same 
account  of  the  matter.  At  any  rate,  it  was  thought  by  the 
commissioners  that  the  Nihantick  sachem  made  but  a  meagre 
defense.  He  was  dismissed  with  the  assurance  that  unless 
he  immediately  liquidated  the  old  arrearages,  the  English 
would  leave  him  to  his  fate. 

*  J.  II.  Trumbull,  i.  187. 


[1649.]        EUMOEED  ALLIANCE  WITH  THE  PEQUOTS.  159 

About  this  time  the  colonies  were  thrown  into  a  convul- 
sion by  a  rumor,  the  author  of  which  it  is  not  difficult  to  di- 
vine, that  a  son  or  brother  of  Sassacus  was  negotiating  an 
alliance  with  Ninigret,  and  was  about  to  marry  his  daughter, 
and  that  the  Narragansetts  and  Nihanticks  were  contriving 
to  gather  up  the  scattered  Pequots,  and  place  them  under 
the  dominion  of  this  bugbear  chief.  This  story  is  so  shallow 
and  incredible  to  us  of  the  present  day,  that  it  seems  aston- 
ishing that  it  should  have  gained  any  credence.  But  the 
crafty  politician  who  devised  it  was  a  shrewd  judge  of  char- 
acter, and  knew  that  the  very  word  Pequot  had  not  ceased 
to  be  terrible  to  the  English.  This  fabrication  was  intend- 
ed to  have  a  double  edge.  Uncas  knew  that  the  Pequots 
who  had  been  assigned  to  his  keeping  had  more  than  two 
years  before  been  induced  by  his  tyranny  to  revolt  from  him, 
and  set  up  for  themselves.  He  also  knew  these  Indians  had 
in  1647,  presented  to  the  English  a  memorial,  such  as  they 
were  able  to  frame,  against  his  outrageous  treatment  of  them, 
which  recited  a  list  of  exactions  and  cruelties ;  and  he  also 
knew  that  he  was  guilty  of  all  that  they  charged  upon  him. 
The  English,  slow  to  believe  their  favorite  and  ally  to  be 
such  an  unprincipled  wretch  as  he  was  represented,  were  at 
last,  upon  frequent  repetition  of  the  accusation,  beginning  to 
lose  confidence  in  him.  What  so  likely,  in  this  pressing  ex- 
igency, to  divert  the  attention  of  the  English  from  himself 
and  fix  it  where  he  most  desired  it  to  remain,  as  an  appeal 
to  the  fears  of  his  allies,  by  putting  in  circulation  this  well- 
contrived  story  of  the  anticipated  alliance  of  the  Pequots, 
his  accusers,  with  the  Nihanticks  and  Narragansetts,  who 
were  his  old  enemies  ?  It  would  serve  the  double  purpose  of 
lulling  the  growing  suspicions  against  himself,  and  increasing 
those  already  existing  against  his  rivals.  The  prospects  held 
out  to  him  by  this  story  were  so  flattering  that  he  could  not 
resist  them. 

Meanwhile  his  evil  deeds  were  sent  forth  upon  every 
wind.  The  insulted  Pequots  repeated  their  charges  in  the 
ears  of  the  English,  until  their  frigid  incredulity  gradually 


160  HISTORY  OF  CONNECTICUT. 

dissolved.  The  Pequots  affirmed  that  since  they  had  been 
put  under  his  protection,  he  had  exacted  from  them  payments 
of  wampum  forty  several  times.  They  farther  asserted  that 
upon  the  death  of  one  of  his  children,  the  hypocritical  father 
made  his  squaw  presents  to  comfort  her,  and  compelled  them 
to  give  her  wampum  by  way  of  adding  to  this  extraordinary 
consolation.  Whereupon  Uncas  expressed  great  satisfaction, 
and  gave  his  word  that  he  would  ever  after  treat  them 
with  the  same  consideration  as  if  they  were  of  Mohegan 
blood  ;  and  that,  in  violation  of  this  promise,  he  had  cheated 
them  and  wronged  them  in  a  variety  of  ways.  One  of  the 
Pequot  sachems  in  particular,  insisted  that  Uncas  had  taken 
away  his  wife  from  him  and  conducted  towards  her  as  if  she 
had  been  his  own.  Others  testified  that  he  had  wounded  and 
tortured  some  of  the  Pequots,  and  robbed  the  whole  of 
them.  This  memorial  was  presented  in  behalf  of  more  than 
sixty  Pequots.  Uncas  of  course  denied  all  the  allegations 
set  forth  in  it,  but  they  were  so  thoroughly  substantiated  that 
the  commissioners  could  not  help  believing  them.  They  re- 
buked Uncas,  ordered  him  to  give  up  the  wife  of  the  chief 
whom  he  had  stolen,  make  the  Pequots  good  for  all  the  dam- 
ages he  had  done  them,  and  pay  a  fine  of  one  hundred  fathom 
of  wampum.  He  was  also  directed  to  take  back  his  abused 
subjects  without  inflicting  any  punishment  upon  them  for 
complaining  of  his  cruelties  towards  them.  But  the  poor 
creatures  refused  to  comply  with  this  order,  although  they 
were  obedient  to  the  English  in  all  other  respects.  Year 
after  year,  as  the  commissioners  met,  they  presented  their 
humble  petition,  in  which  they  feelingly  alluded  to  their  con- 
dition as  a  conquered  people,  and  owned  that  their  tribe  had 
met  a  just  fate ;  but  they  begged  to  be  delivered  from  the 
rapacity  and  overbearing  insolence  of  Uncas.  They  said 
that  whatever  might  have  been  the  fault  of  their  tribe,  they 
at  least  had  killed  no  Englishmen,  and  that  Wequash,  the 
guide,  who  had  led  Mason  to  the  fort,  had  given  them  his 
word  that  if  they  would  fly  from  the  Pequot  country,  and  do 
the   colonies   no   injury,  they  should   be   safe   from   harm. 


[1650.]  ATHERTON'S  EXPEDITION.  161 

These  plaintive  supplications  at  last  had  the  effect  to  mitigate 
the  condition  of  the  petitioners.  This  relief  was  in  part  due 
to  the  interposition  of  Mr.  Winthrop,  who  knew  Uncas  too 
well  to  take  his  part.  There  was  never  any  cordiality  be- 
tween that  gentleman  and  the  Mohegan  chief 

This  year,  (1649,)  the  aftair  of  the  impost  was  again 
brought  before  the  commissioners,  and  decided  as  before  in 
favor  of  Connecticut.  The  members  from  Massachusetts 
then  produced  an  order  of  their  General  Court,  imposing  a 
duty  upon  "  all  goods  belonging  to  any  of  the  inhabitants  of 
Plymouth,  Connecticut  or  New  Haven,  imported  within  the 
castle,  or  exported  from  any  part  of  the  bay."  This  was  done 
by  way  of  retaliating  upon  Connecticut,  and  upon  the  other 
colonies,  for  voting  in  behalf  of  the  Connecticut  impost.  It 
was  an  act  which  the  historians  of  Massachusetts  have  never 
attempted  to  justify,  and  was  unworthy  of  the  high  charac- 
ter of  that  noble  colony — a  character  so  steadily  sustained 
■  from  that  day  to  the  present. 

On  the  5th  of  September,  1650,  the  commissioners  again 
met  at  Hartford.  Governor  Hopkins  of  Connecticut  presided. 
There  was  no  want  of  topics  to  occupy  their  attention.  The 
Narragansetts  still  neglected  to  produce  the  wampum  that 
they  had  long  been  obligated  to  pay.  The  gallant  Captain 
Humphrey  Atherton,  of  Massachusetts,  was  sent  with  twenty 
men  under  his  command  to  enforce  the  payment.  He  was 
authorized,  if  the  arrearages  were  not  paid,  to  seize  upon 
such  property  as  he  could  find  to  an  amount  equal  in  value 
to  the  sum  due,  or  to  take  possession  of  the  person  of  Pessa- 
cus  or  of  his  children,  and  bring  them  away  as  hostages,  to 
insure  the  final  liquidation  of  this  troublesome  account. 
With  such  a  liberal  commission,  Atherton,  with  his  handful 
of  men,  marched  into  the  heart  of  the  Narragansett  country. 
He  had  no  difficulty  in  procuring  an  interview  with  Pessa- 
cus,  but  the  sachem  immediately  began  to  practice  his  old 
arts  of  diplomacy.  He  advanced  a  number  of  propositions 
with  provisional  clauses  and  conditions  involved,  which,  in 

the  language  of  the  logicians,  he  proceeded  to  argue  in  a  cir- 

11 


162  HISTORY  OF  CONNECTICUT. 

cle,  arriving  at  the  same  point  whence  he  started,  without 
stating  any  thing  in  an  explicit  manner.  He  kept  the  Eng- 
lish aloof  from  his  person  during  this  oration,  evidently  "  talk- 
ing against  time,"  while  his  warriors  were  gathering  around 
him  in  formidable  numbers.  The  high-spirited  Atherton, 
who  probably  never  knew  what  fear  was,  could  control  his 
temper  no  longer.  He  marched  to  the  door  of  the  chief's 
wigwam,  and  there  leaving  his  men,  he  rushed  into  the  wig- 
wam, and  in  a  very  unparliamentary  way,  it  must  be  admit- 
ted, seized  his  majesty  of  Narragansett  by  the  hair,  in  the 
midst  of  his  oration,  and  dragging  him  forth  from  the  circle 
of  his  attendants,  pointed  a  loaded  pistol  at  his  head,  and 
told  him  he  would  blow  his  brains  out  if  he  dared  to  offer 
the  least  resistance.  Arrested,  probably,  in  the  very  flush 
of  some  lofty  metaphor,  like  a  falcon  struck  down  by  an  ar- 
row while  in  the  swiftest  turnings  of  his  airy  flight,  the 
chief  in  astonishment  and  alarm  ended  the  negotiations  at 
once,  by  counting  out  the  wampum  which  he  had  sworn  that 
he  was  not  possessed  of,  and  paying  it  over  to  Atherton,  who 
thereupon  set  him  at  liberty.* 

Taking  leave  of  Pessacus,  the  English  ambassador  hastened 
to  pay  a  visit  to  Ninigret.  He  was  not  long  in  finding  him. 
As  he  came  on  business,  and  not  for  the  sake  of  enjoying  the 
luxuries  of  Indian  hospitality,  Atherton  proceeded  at  once  to 
state  to  the  Nihantick  sachem  the  object  of  his  mission,  and 
to  tell  him  some  very  wholesome  though  unwelcome  truths. 
He  charged  upon  him  the  intended  alliance  of  his  family  with 
the  Pequot  chief,  and  with  his  manoeuvres  to  possess  him- 
self of  the  conquered  country.  In  the  course  of  the  conver- 
sation he  demanded  of  him  where  the  proposed  bridegroom 
was  to  be  found,  and  what  number  of  warriors  he  had  with 
him.  He  insisted  on  having  direct  answers  to  all  his  ques- 
tions, as  he  said  he  wanted  to  make  a  faithful  report  of  all 
that  passed  between  them,  to  the  commissioners.  What  in- 
formation he  gleaned  in  regard  to  the  alliance,  I  am  unable 
to  say.     His  visit  was  not  without  its  effect,  and  served  the 

*  Trumbull,  i.  188. 


[1650.]  GOV.   STUYVESANT  VISITS  HAETFORD.  163 

purpose  for  which  it  was  intended,  that  of  intimidating  the 
JVihanticks. 

This  expedition  of  Atherton  is  one  of  the  boldest  enter- 
prises recorded  in  our  annals.  It  has  also  the  merit  of  being 
entirely  bloodless ;  and  has  such  a  happy  mixture  in  it  of 
tragedy  and  comedy,  that  it  leaves  a  very  pleasant  effect 
upon  the  mind.  The  conduct  of  Atherton  gives  us,  in  a  few 
bold,  dashing  strokes,  a  complete  portraiture  of  his  character. 

All  this  time  affairs  were  getting  worse  between  the  con- 
federacy of  New  England  and  Peter  Stuyvesant,  governor  of 
New  Netherlands.  At  last,  the  Dutch  governor  with  a  view 
of  bringing  about  some  arrangement  between  the  contend- 
ing powers,  both  in  reference  to  commerce  and  jurisdiction, 
thought  it  advisable  to  accept  the  invitation  sometime  be- 
fore tendered  him  by  the  commissioners,  and  take  a  journey 
to  Hartford,  where  that  body  was  then  in  session.  He  ar- 
rived at  Hartford  on  the  11th  of  September,  1650.  He  came 
in  a  style  befitting  his  rank.  He  was  invited,  as  he  had  often 
been  before,  to  attend  the  meetings  of  the  commissioners. 
With  much  stateliness  he  declined  to  accept  the  invitation, 
and  expressed  a  wish  that  the  business  should  be  transacted 
through  the  medium  of  written  correspondence.  This  form- 
ality of  putting  upon  paper  what  could  be  so  much  more 
readily  expressed  by  oral  conference,  did  not  accord  with  the 
practical  usages  adopted  by  the  other  party ;  but  as  his  Ex- 
cellency was  inflexible,  they  thought  it  best  to  yield  the  point 
as  one  of  mere  etiquette. 

The  Dutch  governor  having  prevailed  as  to  the  7nanner  of 
conducting  the  negotiation,  he  may  have  thought  he  should 
succeed  equally  well  as  to  the  matter. 

He  commenced  this  diplomatic  correspondence  by  a  state 
paper  that  struck  at  the  root  of  the  controversy  at  once. 
He  complained  of  the  encroachments  of  the  English  upon  the 
rights  of  the  West  India  company,  and  of  the  injuries  done 
to  the  Dutch,  especially  by  the  colonies  of  Connecticut  and 
New  Haven.  He  asserted  that  the  Dutch  had  an  unques- 
tionable title  to  all  the  lands  upon  the  Connecticut  river,  hav- 


164  HISTOEY   OF   CONNECTICUT. 

ing  bought  them  of  the  aboriginal  proprietors,  before  the 
EngHsh,  or  any  other  power  had  laid  claim  to  them.  He 
demanded  a  surrender  of  those  lands,  and  a  suitable  remuner- 
ation for  the  use  of  them.  He  entered  his  protest  against  the 
act,  which  excluded  the  Dutch  from  the  English  colonies  for 
the  purposes  of  trade.  He  spoke  with  indignation  of  the  cus- 
tom, which  he  said  prevailed  among  the  English  traffickers, 
of  selling  goods  to  the  Indians  at  such  ruinously  low  pi'ices, 
that  other  nations  could  not  compete  with  them.  He  ex- 
pressed a  wilUngness  to  come  to  some  understanding  in  rela- 
tion to  the  boundaries  of  the  respective  claimants.  Worse 
than  all,  and  most  likely  to  widen  the  breach  between  the 
English  and  his  government,  he  dated  this  unlucky  letter  at 
New  Netherlands.  The  commissioners  could  with  difficulty 
suppress  their  contempt  at  his  arrogant  pretensions.  They 
replied  that  they  would  not  treat  with  him  unless  he  dated 
his  epistles  at  some  other  place  than  New  Netherlands.  In 
answer  to  this  objection,  he  said,  that  if  they  would  not  date 
at  Hartford,  he  would  not  date  at  New  Netherlands.  He 
suggested,  by  way  of  compromise,  that  they  should  both  date 
at  Connecticut.  The  English  made  answer  that  he  might 
date  at  Connecticut  if  he  liked,  but  as  for  themselves  they 
should  date  at  Hartford.  Very  reluctantly  governor  Stuyves- 
ant  was  compelled  to  give  way.  He  found  that  the  English 
were  as  fastidious  and  captious  as  he  in  relation  to  forms, 
when  those  forms  might  be  afterwards  converted  into  sub- 
stantive evidence  as  descriptive  of  a  part  of  the  territory  in 
dispute,  and  as  an  acknowledgment  either  of  title  or  juris- 
diction. 

Having  settled  this  preliminary  question,  the  English  were 
not  backward  in  stating  their  title  to  Connecticut,  by  posses- 
sion, purchase,  and  discovery.  They  added,  that  the  honor- 
able West  India  company  had  set  up  so  many  claims,  and 
couched  them  in  terms  so  ambiguous,  that  the  commissioners 
were  not  well  advised  either  as  to  the  extent  of  country  that 
the  Dutch  supposed  themselves  entitled  to,  or  as  to  the  title 
by  which  it  was  held.     After  a  great  deal  of  mutual  accusa- 


[1650.]  NEGOTIATIONS   WITH  THE   DUTCH.  165 

tion  and  recrimination,  involving  a  minute  recital  of  all  the 
quarrels  by  sea  and  land  that  had  sprung  up  between  the  two 
powers,  it  was  agreed  that  the  whole  matter,  including  the 
boundary  question,  should  be  submitted  to  arbitration.  Sev- 
eral days  were  spent,  and  numerous  and  tedious  were  the 
letters  that  passed  between  them,  before  they  came  to  this 
result. 

The  commissioners  chose  Bradstreet  of  Boston,  and  Prince 
of  Plymouth  ;  and  his  Excellency  of  New  Amsterdam,  chose 
Thomas  Willet  and  George  Baxter,  as  arbitrators,  with  full 
power  to  settle  all  differences.* 

On  the  19th  of  September,  the  arbitrators  made  and  pub- 
lished an  award,  that  appears  to  have  been  as  satisfactory  to 
the  parties  concerned  as  could  have  been  anticipated.  It  is 
a  state  paper  of  very  great  abiUty  and  conciseness.  It  very 
adroitly  states  at  the  outset,  that  most  of  the  alleged  griev- 
ances complained  of  by  Connecticut,  and  New  Haven  colonies, 
had  happened  during  the  administration  of  governor  Kieft, 
the  predecessor  of  governor  Stuyvesant,  and  that  they  post- 
pone a  hearing  upon  all  these  questions  until  the  Dutch 
governor  can  find  time  to  prepare  his  answer. 

They  pass  over  the  controversy  growing  out  of  the  seizure 
of  Mr.  Westerhouse's  vessel  in  a  manner  equally  acceptable 
to  governor  Stuyvesant,  by  finding  that  the  affair  happened 
partly  through  a  mistake  of  his  secretary,  and  partly  through 
the  default  of  Westerhouse  in  trading  at  New  Haven  with- 
out a  license ;  and  that  the  seizure  was  by  no  means  ordered 
or  made  by  way  of  asserting  title  in  the  Dutch  to  New  Ha- 
ven. It  was  then  awarded  that  the  colony  of  New  Haven 
should  rest  satisfied  with  this  explanation,  and  not  claim  any 
remuneration  for  the  same. 

Having  thus  bestowed  the  shell  of  the  nut,  these  worthy 
gentlemen  proceeded  to  dispose  of  the  boundary  question, 
which  was  the  kernel,  in  the  following  w^ords : 

"  I.  That  upon  Long  Island,  a  line  run  from  the  wester- 
most  part  of  Oyster  Bay,  and  so  a  straight  and  direct  line  to 

*  Records  of  the  United  Colonies, 


166  HISTOEY  OF  CONNECTICUT. 

the  sea,  shall  be  the  bounds  betwixt  the  English  and  Dutch 
there,  the  easterly  to  belong  to  the  English,  and  the  wester- 
most  to  the  Dutch. 

"  II.  The  bounds  upon  the  main  to  begin  at  the  west  side 
of  Greenwich  bay,  being  about  four  miles  from  Stamford, 
and  so  to  run  a  northerly  line,  twenty  miles  up  into  the 
country,  and  after,  as  it  shall  be  agreed,  by  the  two  govern- 
ments of  the  Dutch  and  New  Haven,  provided  the  said  line 
come  not  within  ten  miles  of  Hudson's  river.  And  it  is 
agreed,  that  the  Dutch  shall  not,  at  any  time  hereafter,  build 
any  house  or  habitation  within  six  miles  of  the  said  line;  the 
inhabitants  of  Greenwich  to  remain  (till  further  considera- 
tion thereof  be  had,)  under  the  government  of  the  Dutch. 

"  III.  The  Dutch  shall  hold  and  enjoy  all  the  lands  in 
Hartford  that,  they  are  actually  possessed  of,  known  and 
set  out  by  certain  marks  and  bounds,  and  all  the  remain- 
der of  the  said  land,  on  both  sides  of  Connecticut  river,  to  be 
and  remain  to  the  English  there. 

"And  it  is  agreed,  that  the  aforesaid  bounds  and  limits, 
both  upon  the  island  and  main,  shall  be  observed  and 
kept  inviolable,  both  by  the  English  of  the  united  colonies, 
and  all  the  Dutch  nation,  without  any  encroachment  or  mo- 
lestation, until  a  full  and  final  determination  be  agreed  upon 
in  Europe,  by  the  mutual  consent  of  the  two  states  of  Eng- 
land and  Holland. 

"  And  in  testimony  of  our  joint  consent  to  the  several  fore- 
going conclusions,  we  have  hereunto  set  our  hands  this  19th 
day  of  September,  Anno  Domini,  1650. 

Simon  Bradstreet, 
Thomas  Prince, 
Thomas  Willet, 
George  Baxter." 
In  the  month  of  June,  1650,  the  General  Court  of  Connec- 
ticut granted  to  Natlian  Ely,  Richard  Olmsted,  and  other  in- 
habitants  of  Hartford,  liberty  to  remove   to  Norwalk  and 
commence  a  plantation  there,  provided  "  they  attend  a  due 
payment  of  their  proportions  in  all  the  public  charges,  with 


[1651.] 


SETTLEMENT   OF  NORWALK,  167 


a  ready  observation  of  the  other  wholesome  orders  of  the 
country."* 

As  early  as  1640,  Roger  Ludlow  had  purchased  of  the  In- 
dians the  eastern  part  of  the  town.  Captain  Patrick  had 
also  procured  the  title  to  the  central  part  of  it.  The  better 
evidence  appears  to  be,  that  a  few  bold  planters  had  taken 
possession  soon  after  these  grants  w^ere  made,  and  had  con- 
tinued to  retain  it  until  the  arrival  of  the  company  under 
Mr.  Ely  and  Mr.  Olmsted.  Of  this  fact,  however,  there  is  no 
record  proof 

Although  leave  was  granted  to  the  petitioners  in  1650, 
they  did  not  remove  to  Norwalk  until  1651.  The  western 
part  of  the  town  was  deeded  to  them  by  Runkinheage,  on 
the  15th  of  February.  It  is  quite  probable  from  the  date  of 
this  instrument,  that  the  whole  company  removed  in  Janu- 
ary, or  the  early  part  of  February,  and  it  is  not  unlikely  that 
the  tradition  is  true,  that  a  part  of  them  spent  the  entire  win- 
ter there.  As  appears  by  a  contract  made  by  Roger  Lud- 
low, Esquire,  with  this  company,  under  date  of  June  19, 
1650,  the  principal  families,  aside  from  the  two  gentlemen 
already  mentioned,  bore  the  names  of  Webb,  Richards,  Mar- 
vin, Seymour,  Spencer,  Hales.  Roscoe,  Graves,  Holloway,  and 
Church.  By  this  agreement  the  company  became  bound  to 
mow  the  grass  on  the  meadows,  and  stack  the  hay  in  the  sum- 
mer of  1650,  and  as  early  as  the  spring  of  1651  to  break  up  the 
ground  in  Norwalk,  preparatory  to  planting  during  the  next 
summer.  This  agreement  gives  additional  authority  to  the 
legend  that  a  portion  of  the  inhabitants  spent  the  winter  of 
1650  on  the  spot.  The  Indians  would  probably  have  burned 
up  the  haystacks  before  spring,  had  not  some  of  the  farmers 
been  there  to  guard  them.  It  is  very  probable,  too,  that  the 
hay  was  most  of  it  fed  out  to  the  cattle  during  that  winter. 
This  contract  with  Ludlow  was  of  the  nature  of  a  quit-claim 
deed  of  that  gentleman's  original  purchase  for  the  consideration 
of  fifteen  pounds,  the  same  price  that  he  had  paid  for  it  ten 
years  before,  with  the  interest  from  the  date  of  his  purchase, 

*  J.  H.  Trumbull,  i.  210.    , 


168  HISTORY  OF  CONNECTICUT. 

and  a  reservation  of  a  convenient  lot,  to  be  laid  out  for  Mr. 
Ludlow's  sons.  The  name  of  this  charming  place,  with  its 
rich  lands,  its  excellent  harbor,  its  unrivaled  fishing-grounds, 
and  its  most  attractive  river,  was  derived  from  the  tribe 
of  Indians  who  inhabited  it  —  the  Norwalks,  or  Nor- 
wakes.  No  town  in  Connecticut  has  more  salubrious  sea- 
breezes  or  a  climate  more  healthful  and  invigorating.  The 
Rev.  Thomas  Hanford,  the  first  clergyman,  began  to  preach 
there  in  1652,  soon  after  which  a  church  was  formed  and  he 
was  ordained  as  its  regular  pastor.* 

Some  time  during  the  year  1651,  the  place  called  Matta- 
besett  began  to  be  inhabited  by  the  English.  This  settle- 
ment had  long  been  in  contemplation,  probably  some  time 
before  October,  1646,  as  we  find  by  our  record  of  the  doings 
of  the  General  Court,  that  on  the  30th  of  that  month  a  gen- 
tleman, bearing  the  name  of  Phelps,  was  designated  to  "join 
a  committee  for  the  planting  of  Mattabesett."  The  com- 
mittee made  very  slow  progress  in  the  settlement  of  the 
place,  but  it  is  quite  probable  that  a  few  hardy  men,  who 
stood  less  in  awe  of  Sowheag  than  the  other  Englishmen 
did,  soon  after  this  began  to  remove  into  the  immediate 
neighborhood  of  that  formidable  sachem ;  and  that  Httle 
parties  dropped  down  the  river  in  boats  from  Hartford  and 
Wethersfield,  from  time  to  time,  until  the  fall  of  1650,  when 
the  number  of  planters  who  had  established  themselves  there, 
seemed  to  call  upon  the  General  Court  for  their  order  bear- 
ing date  the  11th  of  September,  that  "Mattabesett  should  be 
a  town,"  and  should  proceed  to  make  choice  of  a  constable. 

Owing  to  the  want  of  early  records,  some  obscurity  hangs 
over  the  birth  and  infancy  of  this  town.  It  is  certain  that  in 
the  fall  of  1652,  it  was  represented  in  the  General  Court,  and 
that  in  the  fall  of  1653,  its  name  of  Mattabesett  was  changed 
to  that  of  Middletown,  which  it  has  since  kept  with  honor- 
able distinction.  It  is  not  surprising  that  a  fierce  tribe  of 
Indians  should  for  so  long  a  time  have  kept  the  inhabitants 


*  The  Rev.  Edwin  Hall,  D.  D.,  of  Norwalk,  is  the  author  of  a  valuable  His- 
tory of  that  town,  published  in  1847.     It  comprises  320  pages. 


[1651.]  MIDDLETOWISr,  169 

of  Hartford  and  Wethersfield,  as  well  as  those  who  ulti- 
mately came  from  Massachusetts,  from  occupying  this  inter- 
esting part  of  the  valley  of  the  Connecticut.  Indeed,  the  ex- 
ternal features  of  the  scene,  as  presented  to  the  eye  of  those 
who  passed  up  and  down  the  river,  must  have  been  less  in- 
viting to  men  who  looked  rather  for  rich  lands  than  for 
beautiful  scenery,  especially  when  contrasted  with  the  plains 
that  opened  up  their  perspective  of  grass-lands,  lengthened 
interminably  by  the  over-arching  elms  that  lured  the  eager 
sight  on  either  bank,  a  few  miles  further  up  the  valley.  The 
pioneers  were  not  tourists  in  search  of  the  diversified  and  the 
picturesque  in  nature,  and  therefore  as  they  sailed  down  they 
must  have  turned  a  cold  shoulder  to  the  apparently  wet  lands, 
covered  with  wild  bushes  that  lay  above  the  site  of  the  pres- 
ent city,  and  it  could  not  have  occurred  to  the  most  pro- 
phetic mind  of  all  the  voyagers,  that  the  cliffs  of  red  sandstone 
rising  above  the  water  that  had  been  fretting  their  base  for  so 
many  obscure  ages,  could  contain  quarries  of  such  inexhaust- 
ible wealth,  so  soon  to  be  developed  by  their  descendants. 
Below  the  city,  too,  where  the  swift  stream,  with  frowning 
evergreens  fringing  its  dark  borders,  could  be  twice  spanned 
by  the  flight  of  the  Indian's  arrow,  as,  speeding  on  its  errand 
of  mischief,  it  skimmed  the  surface  of  the  compressed  cur- 
rent, selecting  its  victims  from  the  pinnace  or  the  shallop, 
the  sun-browned  traffickers  must  have  shuddered  at  the  sight 
of  the  very  shades  that  now  tempt  the  leisure-loving  on  a 
summer's  day  to  lean  over  the  sides  of  the  boat  and  look  back 
with  a  kindly  regret.  But  when  once  the  keen  English  far- 
mer had  ventured  to  go  ashore  and  ascend  the  hills  that  com- 
mand the  rich  and  variegated  landscape,  he  could  not  long 
remain  in  ignorance  of  the  abundance  that  had  been  poured 
from  the  full  horn  of  plenty  on  every  side. 

The  Indians  at  Mattabesett  were  very  numerous.  A  good 
deal  of  trouble  was  expected  to  result  from  their  being  so 
near  the  English  settlement,  but  they  were  much  more  do- 
cile than  their  white  neighbors  anticipated.  The  tribe  had 
a  reservation  on  the  western  bank  of  the  Connecticut,  in  the 


170  HISTORY  OP  CONNECTICUT. 

place  called  Newfield.  Here  was  an  old  burial-ground.  A 
cemetery  it  has  been  very  properly  called,  for  these  Indians 
indulged  enough  in  the  refinements  of  external  mourning  to 
erect  monuments  over  the  graves  of  their  dead.  On  the 
eastern  bank  of  the  river  was  another  reservation.  At  a 
place  called  Indian  Hill  was  a  graveyard  with  rude  stones 
and  inscriptions  after  the  manner  of  the  English.  Here,  in  a 
sitting  posture,  with  his  blanket  wrapped  about  his  shoulders, 
the  vessel  containing  the  food  prepared  by  his  friends,  that 
was  to  sustain  him  upon  his  long  journey,  resting  upon  his 
knee,  the  warrior's  skeleton  may  still  be  found  blackened 
with  the  mouldering  earth.  Ghastly  the  exhumed  skull 
frowns  upon  the  obtruding  sunlight  for  a  moment,  and  then 
slowly  crumbles  beneath  the  corroding  influences  of  the  up- 
per air,  to  which  it  has  been  so  rudely  exposed  !* 

The  settlement  at  Delaware  was  too  remote  to  be  any- 
thing other  than  a  burden  to  the  colony  of  New  Haven.  In 
the  spring  of  1651,  fifty  men  from  New  Haven  and  Totoket 
hired  a  vessel  and  with  their  effects  sailed  for  Delaware  bay. 
They  went  provided  with  a  commission  from  governor  Ea- 
ton, and  with  two  letters,  one  from  him  and  the  other  from 
the  governor  of  Massachusetts — both  addressed  to  governor 
Stuy  vesant,  informing  him  that  these  adventurers  were  about 
to  settle  their  own  lands,  and  would  not  encroach  upon  the 
rights  of  the  Dutch.  When  Governor  Stuyvesant  had  read 
these  letters,  he  was  very  much  enraged.  He  seized  the 
messengers  who  delivered  them  to  him,  and  put  them  under 
guard.  At  the  same  time,  under  pretence  of  making  some 
inquiries,  he  sent  to  the  master  of  the  vessel  to  come  ashore, 
and  as  soon  as  he  could  get  him  within  his  reach,  he  caused 
him  to  be  arrested.  He  also  got  possession  of  the  commis- 
sion of  the  company  by  some  feint,  and  refused  to  deliver  it 
up  to  the  owners.  He  forced  all  who  came  on  shore  to  sign  a 
paper,  in  which  they  promised  very  solemnly  that  they  would 

*  P'or  a  more  full  account  of  the  early  history  of  Middletown,  and  the  adjacent 
towns,  the  reader  is  referred  to  the  Rev.  Dr.  Field's  statistics  of  Middlesex  Coun- 
ty, and  to  his  centennial  address  at  Middletown,  in  1850. 


[1651.] 


THE   DELAWARE  LANDS.  171 


not  pursue  their  voyage,  but  with  all  speed  of  wind  and  wave 
would  hasten  back  to  New  Haven.  He  dismissed  them  with 
direful  threats  of  confiscation  of  goods,  and  imprisonment  in 
Holland,  if  he  ever  caught  them  attempting  to  make  a  settle- 
ment at  Delaware. 

On  the  14th  of  September,  the  commissioners  met  at  New 
Haven.  It  was  not  very  long  before  Jasper  Crane  and  Wil- 
liam Tuttle,  smarting  under  the  summary  proceedings  to 
which  they  had  been  subjected  at  New  Amsterdam,  pre- 
sented their  petition  in  behalf  of  themselves  and  others,  call- 
ing fervently  for  redress.  It  was  a  very  inflammable  docu- 
ment, setting  forth  the  character  of  Governor  Stuyvesant  in  a 
light  that  he  could  hardly  have  contemplated  with  equanimi- 
ty. It  spoke  of  his  subjects,  too,  in  terms  of  great  severity. 
It  ended  with  a  stirring  appeal  to  the  commissioners  for 
protection  and  vindication. 

The  commissioners  lost  no  time  in  writing  to  Governor 
Stuyvesant  a  letter,  charging  him  with  breaking  his  faith,  so 
solemnly  plighted  at  Hartford.  They  told  him,  among  other 
salutary  truths,  that  his  interference  with  the  planters  who 
had  sailed  for  Delaware,  was  insupportable,  and  that  the 
New  England  colonies  had  as  good  a  right  to  Manhattan  as 
the  Dutch  had  to  these  Delaware  lands. 

At  this  same  session,  it  was  resolved  that  if  the  petitioners 
should  begin  a  plantation  at  Delaware,  numbering  one  hun- 
dred and  fifty  good  men,  well  armed,  within  twelve  months, 
they  would  uphold  them  in  the  enterprise,  and  defend  them 
from  all  opposition,  whether  from  the  Dutch  or  Swedes. 

While  at  New  Haven  the  commissioners  were  also  waited 
upon  by  a  deputation  that  must  have  been  the  fruitful  theme 
of  conversation  at  New  Haven  for  many  days, — two  French 
gentlemen,  M.  Godfrey  and  Gabriel  Druillets,  agents  of  M. 
D'Aillebout,  governor  of  Canada.  These  gentlemen  pre- 
sented three  commissions,  one  from  their  governor,  another 
from  the  council  of  New  France,  and  a  third  addressed  to 
M.  Druillets  himself,  giving  him  authority  to  teach  to  the  In- 
dians the  doctrines  of  Christianity.     They  appeared  in  behalf 


172  HISTORY  or  CONNECTICUT. 

of  the  French  in  Canada,  and  in  hehalf  of  the  christianized 
Indians  of  Acadie,  wlioni  they  represented  to  be  suffering,  on 
account  of  their  reh'gion,  the  hardships  and  cruelties  of  a 
bloody  persecution,  waged  against  them  by  the  Mohawks. 
A  holy  war,  they  denominated  it,  that  was  designed,  in  viola- 
tion of  the  most  solemn  treaties,  to  quench  in  blood  the  last 
spark  of  the  Christian  faith  upon  the  western  continent.  M. 
Druillets  was  an  orator  of  a  very  graceful  and  persuasive  ad- 
dress. He  used  all  the  arguments  at  his  command  to  induce 
the  colonies  to  declare  war  against  the  Six  Nations.  If 
they  were  opposed  to  involving  themselves  in  a  war  with 
the  Indians,  he  begged  that  they  would  allow  volunteers  to 
go  from  any  of  the  New  England  colonies,  with  a  "free  pas- 
sage by  land  or  water  to  the  Mohawk  country,"  and  that  the 
converted  Indians  might  be  taken  under  the  protection  of 
New  England.  He  held  out  the  prospect  of  a  free  trade  to 
be  established  upon  a  permanant  basis  between  the  French 
and  English  colonies,  as  a  fair  requital  for  the  favors,  if  they 
should  be  granted. 

With  becoming  politeness  the  commissioners,  for  many 
good  reasons,  declined  to  add  to  all  the  evils  then  impending 
over  them,  the  burden  of  a  new  war. 

On  the  30th  of  June,  1652,  the  General  Court  of  Connecti- 
cut met  to  adopt  measures  for  the  defense  of  the  colony 
against  the  Dutch.  A  war  had  already  broken  out  between 
England  and  Holland.  It  was  ordered,  that  the  cannon  at 
Saybrook  should  be  mounted  upon  carriages,  and  that  all 
the  families  in  the  neighborhood  should  be  brought  within  the 
inclosure  of  the  fort.  The  Indians  in  the  vicinity  of  all  the 
plantations  were  required  to  evince  signs  of  their  friendship 
to  the  English,  by  delivering  up  their  arms  to  the  governor 
and  magistrates. 

Some  time  in  March  it  became  rumored  abroad  that  Gov- 
ernor Stuyvesant  had  concerted  a  plan  with  Ninigret  to  ex- 
terminate the  English  in  all  the  colonies,  and  that  the  sachem 
of  the  Nihanticks  had  been  spending  the  winter  with  his 
ally,  at  Manhadocs,  and  had  been  sent  home  in  a  Dutch 


[1652.]  CHARGES  AGAINST  GOV.   STUYVESANT.  173 

sloop  in  very  great  state,  and  with  a  large  supply  of  guns  and 
ammunition.  The  sole  evidence  to  support  this  charge,  was 
the  testimony  of  Indians,  who  came  to  Hartford  and  other 
towns,  and  made  oath  to  the  existence  of  the  plot.  Nine 
sachems  sent  in  their  affidavits  to  Stamford,  to  the  same  effect.* 
The  story,  without  foundation  as  it  was,  and  originating  in 
the  malice  and  cunning  of  some  one  who  had  a  motive  for 
giving  it  currency,  could  not  fail  to  alarm  the  English.  A 
meeting  of  the  Congress  was  called  on  the  19th  of  April,  and 
the  commissioners  proceeded  to  hear  the  allegations.  They 
were  presented  in  such  an  adroit  manner,  and  backed  up  by 
such  an  army  of  Indian  witnesses,  that  six  of  the  commis- 
sioners were  satisfied  of  the  existence  of  the  conspiracy. 
Those  who  represented  Massachusetts  were  so  remote  from 
the  supposed  scene  of  the  tragedy,  and  were  so  conscious  of  the 
strength  of  their  colony,  that  they  could  look  at  the  evidence 
more  calmly,  and  were  convinced  that  the  charges  against 
the  Dutch  and  Indians  were  without  foundation.  It  was  re- 
solved to  send  letters  to  the  Dutch  governor  before  war  was 
declared. 

When  Governor  Stuyvesant  heard  of  this  attack  upon  his 
character,  he  was  highly  incensed.  His  conduct  on  the  occa- 
sion was,  however,  dignified  and  becoming.  He  hastened  to 
write  letters  to  the  Congress,  in  which  he  denied  that  he  was 
guilty  of  the  outrageous  wickedness  attributed  to  him.  His 
sensibilities  were  so  shocked  at  the  reflection  that  his  char- 
acter could  be  thus  misrepresented,  that  he  generously  offered 
to  send  a  messenger,  or  go  in  person  to  Boston,  if  it  was  de- 
sired, to  establish  his  innocence ;  or  if  the  Congress  would 
send  a  committee  to  Manhadoes,  he  would  undertake  to  give 
the  colonies  the  most  satisfactory  proofs  of  his  integrity 
and  honor.  At  the  same  time  he  expressed  his  astonishment 
that  the  English  could  give  credit  to  such  accusations,  com- 
ing from  such  corrupt  sources. 

The  suggestion  of  Stuyvesant  was  adopted,  and  a  commit- 
tee was  sent  with  plenary  power  to  investigate  the  matter. 

*  Trumbull,  i.  203. 


174  HISTORY   OF   CONNECTICUT. 

This  committee  was  made  up  of  Francis  Newman  of  New 
Haven,  John  Leverett,  afterwards  governor  of  Massachu- 
setts, and  William  Davis.*  They  repaired  to  Manhattan,  and 
presented  themselves  for  the  discharge  of  their  duties.  Ow- 
ing, perhaps,  to  the  unpleasant  tone  of  the  letters  sent  to  Man- 
hattan in  reply  to  the  exculpatory  communications  of  Stuyves- 
ant,  as  well  as  owing  to  the  offensive  nature  of  their  mission, 
these  gentlemen  were  not  received  with  m.uch  cordiality. 
The  governor  refused  to  answer  any  questions  except  such  as 
should  be  approved  by  men  of  his  own  appointing,  and 
chose  two  who  had  especially  incurred  the  dislike  of  the 
English  at  Hartford.  One  of  these  men  had  been  put  under 
bonds  while  there,  for  his  misdemeanors.  At  this,  the  agents 
of  the  Congress  were  offended,  and  remonstrated  against  the 
insult  offered  to  the  colonies,  and  the  Idng.  Both  parties 
were  evidently  in  no  very  dispassionate  mood.  The  govern- 
or remained  inexorable  as  to  the  mode  of  transacting  the 
business,  and  the  agents,  after  demanding  satisfaction  for  all 
past  injuries  and  indemnity  against  all  future  wrongs,  took  a 
veiy  haughty  leave  of  a  host  who  appears  to  have  been 
glad  to  be  rid  of  them. 

On  their  way  home,  the  English  agents  spent  some  time 
in  gathering  additional  proof  of  the  guilt  of  the  Dutch  gov- 
ernor ;  and  when  they  arrived,  they  were  in  a  favorable  mood 
to  make  an  alarming  report  of  the  treatment  that  they  had 
received  at  his  hands.  Letters  soon  after  arrived  in  Hart- 
ford and  New  Haven,  giving  the  additional  intelligence  that 
Stuyvesant  had  also  hired  the  Mohawks  to  join  in  this  exe- 
crable measure.  Again  Stuyvesant  remonstrated  and  at  the 
same  time,  in  a  fit  of  exasperation,  asserted  his  old  claims  of 
jurisdiction    to  New  Haven  and  Connecticut. 

The  commissioners,  with  the  exception  of  Bradstreet,  were 
now  all  in  favor  of  a  declaration  of  war.  That  gentleman 
represented  the  wishes  of  the  General  Court  of  Massachu- 
setts. His  opposition  led  to  a  harsh  debate,  and  finally  to  a 
committee  of  conference  between  the  Congress  and  the  Gen- 
*  Hutchinson,  i.  166;  Trumbull,  i.  203. 


[1653.]  MASSACHUSETTS   OPPOSED   TO   WAR.  175 

eral  Court,  which  brought  about  a  reference  of  the  whole 
matter  to  the  elders.  That  learned  body  very  judiciously 
advised  the  colonies  to  "forbear  the  use  of  the  sword,"  but 
to  be  in  readiness  for  defense.*  This  decision  did  not  satisfy 
the  Congress.  Again  they  resolved  on  war,  Massachusetts 
still  remained  firm  in  her  opposition. 

On  the  30th  of  May,  the  Rev.  Mr.  Norris,  of  Salem,  sent 
a  memorial  to  the  Congress,  calling  loudly  for  the  war.f  It 
is  a  paper  of  great  ability  and  eloquence.  After  presenting 
a  vivid  picture  of  the  condition  of  the  Dutch  and  English  na- 
tions, then  in  a  state  of  war  at  home,  and  warning  the  Con- 
gress against  the  loss  of  respect  among  the  Indians,  by  pur- 
suing such  a  vacillating  policy,  he  alludes  to  the  situation  of 
these  colonies  now  exposed  to  danger,  who  have  "sent 
their  moan"  to  the  Congress,  and  called  for  their  assistance, 
which,  if  they  should  refuse,  the  "curse  of  the  angel  of  the 
Lord  against  Moses  would  come  upon  them." 

Still  the  General  Court  of  Massachusetts  continued  inexora- 
ble and  passed  a  resolve  that  no  determination  of  the  Con- 
gress could  induce  the  colony  to  unite  with  the  others  in  an 
offensive  war  with  the  Dutch,  which  should  appear  to  the  Gen- 
eral Court  to  be  unjust.  This  resolution  led  to  a  written  con- 
troversy  between  Massachusetts  and  the  other  colonies,  which 
might  have  ended  in  the  dissolution  of  the  union,  but  for 
the  interference  of  Cromwell,  who  took  the  part  of  the  weak- 
er colonies  without  any  reference  to  the  supposed  conspiracy, 
as  it  best  suited  his  stern  policy  to  do.  Massachusetts  was 
thus  compelled  to  yield.  The  ships  of  the  Protector  were 
already  on  their  passage  to  America,  to  reduce  the  pride  of 
the  governor  of  New  Netherlands. 

I  have  already  stated  it  to  be  my  belief  that  the  story  of 
the  plot  against  the  EngUsh  was  a  sheer  fabrication.  -'Who 
was  its  author,  I  am  of  course  unable  to  say.  The  fact  that 
the  Mohawks  were  made  parties  to  it,  and  that  it  resulted  in 
a  declaration  of  war  against  Ninigret,  enables  me  to  draw  an 
inference   that  certainly  exonerates   the  English  from   any 

*  Hutcliinson,  i.  167 ;  Trumbull,  i.  207.       f  Records  of  the  United  Colonies. 


176  HISTOET  OF  CONNECTICUT. 

blame,  unless  it  be  in  the  exercise  of  too  large  a  measure  of 
credulity  in  a  matter  that  appeared  to  them  to  threaten  their 
very  existence.  As  regards  the  conduct  of  Massachusetts  in 
ignoring  the  resolves  of  a  confederacy  which  she  was  sol- 
emnly pledged  to  support,  I  will  only  quote  the  language 
of  her  own  historian,  who  dismisses  this  topic  with  the  re- 
mark that,  "  where  states  in  alliance  are  greatly  dispropor- 
tioned  in  strength  and  importance,  power  often  prevails  over 
right."*  This  is  a  very  happy  blending  of  the  elements  of 
praise  and  blame  in  a  simple  sentence,  and  expresses  all  that 
need  be  said  upon  a  subject  that  certainly  gave  occasion  for 
much  just  censure  on  both  sides. 

*  Hutcliinsoii,  i.  168. 


CHAPTER  IX. 

THE  DEPARTUEE  OP  LUDLOW.    DEATH  OF  HAINES,  "WOLCOTT  AND  EATON. 

The  alarm  excited  by  the  charges  against  the  Dutch  and 
Indians  resulted  in  some  unhappy  contentions.  Stamford 
and  Fairfield  were  in  a  state  of  excitement  bordering  on 
phrensy.  They  complained  that  the  war  was  not  prosecuted 
by  the  Congress,  and  that  Connecticut  and  New  Haven  neg- 
lected to  lend  a  helping  hand  to  them  at  a  time  when  their 
enemies  were  pressing  upon  them.  These  little  settlements, 
so  near  the  Dutch  jurisdiction,  with  the  remembrance  still 
alive  of  bloody  Indian  depredations  so  recently  brought  to 
their  very  doors,  had  much  reason  to  be  anxious  when  they 
reflected  upon  their  situation,  in  a  remote  and  solitary  re- 
gion, where  they  might  be  murdered,  and  their  houses  burned 
to  ashes,  long  before  the  news  could  be  carried  to  New  Ha- 
ven. Having  demanded  troops  to  protect  her,  and  not  re- 
ceiving them  from  the  government  of  New  Haven,  Stam- 
ford finally  lost  all  patience  and  threatened  to  free  herself 
from  the  expensive  taxes  of  a  colony  that  either  could  not  or 
would  not  defend  her,  and  place  herself  under  the  immediate 
protection  of  England.  It  was  not  until  the  deputy  gov- 
ernor, in  company  with  Mr.  Newman,  paid  them  a  visit,  and 
read  to  them  an  order  of  the  committee  of  Parliament,  call- 
ing upon  all  the  towns  to  obey  their  respective  colonial  gov- 
ernments, that  they  were  induced  to  yield.* 

The  citizens  of  Fairfield  held  a  town  meeting,  and  with 
one  consent  determined  to  raise  troops  independently  of  Con- 
necticut, and  carry  on  the  war  themselves.  They  appointed 
Roger  Ludlow  commander-in-chieft  As  the  year  1654 
may,  for  the  purposes  of  historical  narrative,  be  considered 
as  the  year  of  his  civil  death,  I  cannot  omit  this  occasion 

*  TrumbuU,  i.  214.  f  Trumbull :  Brodhead,  i.  565 ;  Allen,  548. 

12 


178  HISTORY  OF   CONNECTICUT. 

of  making  a  brief  allusion  to  the  character  and  to  the  per- 
sonal history  of  this  remarkable  man,  as  far  as  I  am  able  to 
gather  it  from  the  scattered  shreds  that  are  left  of  his  impul- 
sive career.  He  was  a  lawyer  of  good  family,  and  resided 
in  Dorchester,  in  the  county  of  Dorsetshire,  in  the  southern 
part  of  England.  On  the  10th  of  February,  1630,  he  was 
chosen  an  assistant  by  the  General  Court  of  Massachusetts. 
In  May,  following,  he  sailed  from  Plymouth  for  America,  in 
the  Mary  and  John,  and  entered  upon  the  discharge  of  his 
ojfiicial  duties  at  the  first  Assistant  Court,  held  at  Charles- 
town  in  August,  of  the  same  year.  He  continued  to  occupy 
this  place  for  four  years.  In  1634  he  was  chosen  deputy 
governor  of  the  province,  and  hoped  to  have  been  raised  to 
the  rank  of  governor,  but  was  disappointed  by  the  jealousy 
of  the  deputies,  who  appear  to  have  taken  offense  at  some 
impolitic  remarks  made  by  him,  probably  in  relation  to  their 
growing  strength  and  to  the  frequency  -of  elections.  To 
show  him  how  well  they  could  vindicate  themselves,  and 
perhaps  to  reciprocate  his  good  advice  by  giving  him  a  prac- 
tical lesson  upon  exercising  the  Christain  virtue  of  humility, 
they  elected  John  Haynes  governor.  Ludlow  protested 
against  this  appointment  in  terms  of  severity.  He  alleged 
that  the  election  was  void  for  the  reason  that  the  deputies 
had  agreed  upon  their  candidate  before  they  left  their  respec- 
tive towns.  By  way  of  requital  for  making  such  an  accusa- 
tion, which  was  in  all  probability  true,  and  as  a  further  proof 
of  the  popular  power,  he  was  left  out  of  the  magistracy  for 
that  year.  He  had  not  learned  the  art,  so  common  in  our 
age,  of  telling  the  people  precisely  what  he  did  not  believe 
to  be  true. 

Discouraged  at  this  decided  expression  of  the  popular  dis- 
pleasure, he  removed  to  Connecticut  during  the  summer  or 
fall  of  the  year  1635,  and  established  himself  at  Windsor. 
Here  he  continued  under  the  gentle  ministrations  of  Mr. 
Wareham,  and  soon  became  one  of  the  most  conspicuous 
men  in  the  colony.  In  the  summer  of  1037,  he  was  sent  by 
the  General  Court  as  one  of  the  advisers  of  the  Connecticut 


EOGEE  LUDLOW.  179 

forces  in  the  second  stage  of  the  Pequot  war.*  He  was 
probably  the  first  lawyer  who  ever  came  into  the  colony,  and 
one  of  the  most  gifted  who  have  ever  lived  in  it. 

I  have  already  incidentally  alluded  to  the  part  that  he  took 
in  framing  the  constitution  of  1G39.  I  cannot  help  regard- 
ing it  as  mainly  his  work.  The  phraseology  is  his :  it 
breathes  his  spirit.  It  must  have  been  substantially  the  off- 
spring of  some  one  mind,  that  pierced  like  an  eagle  through 
the  clouds  that  shrouded  the  seventeenth  century,  and  sought 
the  pure  region  of  right  reason,  shining  none  the  less  bright- 
ly, that,  like  the  rolling  spheres  of  light,  it  is  expressed  in  dis- 
tinct forms.  I  have  compared  this  paper  with  those  written 
by  Milton,  expressive  of  his  views  of  government  and  of  lib- 
erty. In  the  political  writings  of  the  great  poet  I  can  see 
the  marks  of  unbounded  genius,  vast  imagination  and  pro- 
phetic hopes,  lighting  up  the  dim  horizon  with  the  golden 
promises  of  dawn.  But  I  find  there  no  well-digested  system 
of  republicanism.  He  deals  alone  with  the  absolute.  His 
republic  would  befit  only  a  nation  of  Miltons.  His  laws 
are  fit  only  to  govern  those  who  are  capable  of  being  a  law 
unto  themselves.  But  Ludlow  views  the  concrete  and  the  ab- 
stract both  at  once.  He  is  a  man  of  systems — such  systems 
as  can  alone  be  placed  in  the  hands  of  frail  men  to  protect 
them  against  their  worst  enemies — their  own  lawless  passions. 

On  the  11th  of  April,  1639,  he  was  chosen  deputy  gov- 
ernor of  the  commonwealth,  and  was  the  first  who  ever  held 
that  office  in  Connecticut. f  John  Haynes,  whose  elevation 
to  the  place  of  governor  in  Massachusetts,  in  1635,  was  the 
cause  of  Ludlow's  removing  from  that  province,  was  elected 
governor  of  Connecticut  at  the  same  time  that  Ludlow  was 
made  deputy  governor.  This  unlucky  coincidence  must 
have  been  galling  to  the  pride  of  an  ambitious  man,  and 
whether  it  induced  him,  when  considered  in  connection  with 
his  former  defeat,  to  regard  Haynes  as  his  evil  genius,  or 
whether  he  intended  to  found  a  new  colony,  rather  than  a 

*  J.  H.  Trumbull,  i.  10.  +  J.  H.  Trumbull,  i.  27. 


180  HISTORY  OF  CONNECTICUT. 

town,  in  a  place  that  seemed  remote  enough  for  such  a  pur- 
pose, I  cannot  positively  aver;  yet  had  he  been  placed  at 
the  head  of  the  magistracy,  I  have  no  doubt  that  he  would 
have  I'emained  longer  at  Windsor.  Still  it  would  have  been 
only  a  brief  sojourn.  This  enthusiastic,  restless  man  could 
not  have  been  tempted  to  tarry  long  in  any  one  place  even 
could  he  have  been  rewarded  with  a  diadem.  It  was  not 
alone  the  stirring  of  that  emulation,  that,  like  the  love  of  fame, 
belongs  to  all  noble  minds — not  alone  the  "  trophies  of  Milti- 
ades,"  that  drove  sleep  from  his  pillow ;  but  rather  the  bright 
visions  that  throbbed  in  the  pulses  of  the  adventurer,  and 
called  him,  not  for  the  love  of  earthly  goods,  but  to  give  zest 
to  the  faculties  and  room  for  the  free  tides  of  a  restless  na- 
ture to  ebb  and  flow  without  restraint — that  led  him  to  ven- 
ture forth  again  into  the  wilderness.  He  had  already  visited 
Unquowa,  and  his  eye  had  made  such  a  pleasant  acquaint- 
ance with  its  fields  and  streams,  that  he  could  not  long  hesi- 
tate whither  to  betake  himself  After  his  removal  to  Fair- 
field, he  still  continued  to  perform  important  services  for 
Connecticut,  and  in  1646  he  was  appointed  by  the  General 
Court  to  reduce  her  crude  and  ill-defined  laws  to  a  system.* 
This  he  did  as  well  as  it  could  be  done  when  we  consider  the 
scanty  materials  that  were  furnished  him  for  such  a  struc- 
ture. The  code  was  published  at  Cambridge  in  1672.f  He 
was  several  times  a  commissioner  for  the  colony  in  the  New 
England  Congress.  His  connection  with  the  Congress  ap- 
pears to  have  been  the  remote  cause  of  his  sudden  though 
voluntary  exile.  Why  the  conduct  of  the  citizens  of  Fair- 
field, in  arming  either  to  defend  themselves  or  to  go  in  pur- 
suit of  a  dreaded  enemy,  who  was  every  day  expected  to  in- 
vade their  settlement,  should  have  been  looked  upon  by  Con- 
necticut as  an  act  worthy  of  animadversion,  when  the  Gen- 
eral Court  itself  admitted  the  existence  of  the  dangerous 
emergency  that  induced  them  to  take  the  step,  I  am  unable 
to  say.     It  is  certain   that  no  sedition  was  in  their  hearts. 

*  J.  II.  Trumbull,  i.  138,  154.         +  Allen's  Biog.  Die,  548. 


ROGER    LUDLOW.  181 

Angry  they  doubtless  were,  and  Ludlow  not  the  least,  for  he 
had  an  "infirmity  of  temper"  that  often  visited  him — angry 
and  grieved  that  they  had  been  left  by  the  government  in 
such  a  defenseless  condition ;  but  they  only  took  up  arms  in 
obedience  to  the  instinct  of  self-preservation,  that  is,  accord- 
ing to  the  common  law  of  England,  a  divine  voice,  para- 
mount in  its  authority  to  all  earthly  jurisdictions.  Yet  their 
conduct  was  treated  as  reprehensible  and  seditious,  and 
Robert  Bassett  and  John  Chapman  were  charged  with  "  fo- 
menting insurrections,"  and  were  treated  as  the  leaders  of  the 
project.  Ludlow  must  have  known  that  these  accusations 
were  aimed  at  him,  as  he  was  the  principal  man  of  the  town. 
He  felt  that  he  had,  without  any  moral  guilt,  incurred  the 
displeasure  of  the  colony,  and  that  unless  he  should  make 
some  humiliating  concessions,  his  behavior  would  not  be 
likely  to  escape  public  censure.  It  was  quite  evident  that 
his  popularity  had  already  reached  its  meridian.  Proud  and 
sensitive  to  a  high  degree,  he  brooded  over  the  change  that 
had  taken  place  in  his  prospects,  as  well  for  promotion  as  for 
usefulness,  and  at  last  came  to  the  conclusion,  not  without 
many  keen  regrets,  to  leave  the  colony  where  he  had  held 
so  conspicuous  a  place  for  nineteen  eventful  years. 

On  the  26th  of  April,  1654,  he  embarked  at  New  Haven, 
with  his  family  and  effects,  for  Virginia,  where  he  passed  in 
obscurity  the  remainder  of  his  days.* 

I  have  been  thus  minute  in  treating  of  him,  because  I  felt 
called  upon  to  do  justice  to  the  memory  of  a  great  man, 
whose  faults  were  better  understood  than  his  virtues  by  his 
contemporaries,  and  who  is  almost  a  mythological  character, 
except  as  his  name  still  keeps  the  brief  paragraph  allotted  to 
it  in  the  records  that  load  the  shelves  of  the  antiquary.  He 
seems  indeed  himself  to  have  courted  oblivion,  for  he  carried 
away  with  him  the  entire  records  of  the  town  that  he  had 
planted,  and  of  which  he  was  the  register  at  the  time  of  his 
romantic  flight,  as  if  to  blot  out  every  trace  of  his  irregular 

*  I  am  indebted  for  some  of  tlie  facts  set  forth  in  this  sketch,  to  the  Hon, 
James  Savage,  LL.  D.,  President  of  the  Massachusetts  Historical  Society. 


182  HISTORY  OF  CONNECTICUT. 

footprints  from  the  soil  of  Connecticut.  But  his  fame, 
hke  that  of  all  other  men  of  genius,  who  have  labored 
in  the  cause  of  the  people,  rests  upon  no  such  frail  founda- 
tion; for  genius  builds  its  own  imperishable  temple,  whose 
worshipers  are  the  millions  of  "freemen  whom  the  truth 
makes  free."* 

Just  before  the  departure  of  Ludlow  from  the  colony,  died 
his  Excellency,  John  Haynes,  while  in  the  midst  of  his  offi- 
cial term.  He  was  as  unlike  Ludlow  as  one  man  could  well 
be  dissimilar  to  another.  He  was  a  native  of  the  county  of 
Essex,  in  England,  and  was  of  good  lineage.  He  was  the 
owner  of  Copford  Hall,  an  elegant  seat  that  afforded  an  an- 
nual income  of  one  thousand  pounds  sterling.  He  was  an 
ardent  admirer  of  Hooker,  and,  regardless  of  all  social  and 
pecuniary  considerations,  accompanied  him  to  America.  As 
I  have  already  stated,  he  was  made  governor  of  Massachu- 
setts in  1G35.  The  next  year  he  was  succeeded  by  Sir 
Henry  Vane,  and  in  the  month  of  June,  went  with  that  large 
party  who  traversed  the  glades  and  thickets  of  the  primitive 
forest  in  quest  of  the  valley  of  the  Connecticut.  He  had  the 
honor  of  being  the  first  governor  of  the  little  commonwealth, 
an  office  that  he  held  every  alternate  year  until  his  death. 
He  was  a  gentleman  of  stately  deportment,  graceful  manners 
and  great  stability  of  character.f  With  less  intellectual  ac- 
cumen  than  Ludlow,  and  without  any  of  his  genius,  he  was 
yet  greatly  superior  to  that  wandering  and  whimsical  man  in 
all  the  attributes  that  commanded  the  popular  suffrages. 
Haynes  was  one  of  the  best  representatives  of  the  republi- 
canism of  that  day,  which  Coleridge  has  so  justly  called  a 
"religious  and  moral  aristocracy."  He  was  one  of  the  best 
exampl  js  of  the  Puritan  class  or  party.     Ludlow  on  the  other 

*  The  family  name  of  Ludlow  is  an  ancient  one  in  England,  and  from  it  prob- 
ably the  famous  castle  of  Ludlow  received  its  name.  Ludlow  is  celebrated  as  the 
place  where  Butler  wrote  a  portion  of  Iludibras,  and  there  were  deposited  some 
of  the  remains  of  Sir  Henry  Sidney. 

+  See  Trumbull,  i.  216,  &c. ;  Mather's  Magnalia,  ii.  17;  Hutchinson,  i.  39, 
43,  55  ;  Holmes,  i.  303. 


[1654.]  ARRIVAL   OF   SEDGWICK  AND   LEVERETT.  183 

hand,  belonged  to  no  party,  but  was  himself  the  prototype 
of  a  different  order  of  republicanism  that  has  at  last  diffused 
itself  like  the  air  over  the  surface  of  the  continent. 

The  question  of  the  Dutch  and  Indian  war  still  agitated 
the  colonies.  About  the  time  of  Ludlow's  removal,  one 
Manning,  master  of  a  small  armed  vessel,  was  arrested  by  the 
authorities  of  New  Haven  colony,  for  carrying  on  a  contra- 
band trade  with  the  Dutch  at  Manhattan.  Whilo  Manning's 
trial  was  going  on  at  New  Haven,  his  men  took  possession 
of  his  ship,  and  in  defiance  of  the  government  sailed  out  of 
Milford  harbor,  where  she  had'  been  riding  at  anchor.  The 
gallant  people  of  Milford  armed  and  manned  a  vessel,  and 
gave  the  fugitive  such  a  chase  that  they  came  in  sight  of 
her  before  she  reached  Manhattan,  and  pressed  so  hard  upon 
her  that  her  crew  betook  themselves  to  their  boat,  and  left 
her  adrift  to  fall  an  easy  prey  into  the  hands  of  her  pursurers, 
who  brought  her  back  into  the  harbor,  where  she  was  con- 
demned with  her  cargo  as  a  lawful  prize. 

A  few  days  after,  Major  Sedgwick  and  Captain  Leverett 
arrived  in  Boston  with  a  fleet,  sent  over  by  the  Lord  Pro- 
tector at  the  request  of  Connecticut  and  New  Haven,  to 
carry  on  the  war  with  the  Dutch.*  On  the  8th  of  June, 
governor  Eaton  received  a  letter  from  Cromwell,  informing 
him  that  he  had  sent  the  fleet  for  the  assistance  of  the  col- 
onies. Major  Sedgwick  and  Captain  Leverett  also  sent  let- 
ters, asking  that  each  of  the  governments  wOuld  send  com- 
missioners to  consult  with  them  as  to  the  objects  of  the  expe- 
dition. Connecticut  and  New  Haven  both  sent  commis- 
sioners, and  such  was  the  zeal  of  Cdnnecticut  that  she  au- 
thorized Mason  and  CuUick,  whom  she  chose  to  represent 
her  in  this  important  embassy,  to  engage  iii,  her  behalf  two 
hundred  soldiers,  and,  rather. than  that  the  enterprise  should 
fail,  even  five  hundred  if  necessary. f 

In  Massachusetts  the  old  opposition  to  the  war  remained 

unshaken.     On  the  8th  of  June,  the  General  Court  convened 

in  a  state  of  considerable  excitement.     They  would  vote  to 

*  Brodhead,  i.  582,  583.         t  J.  H.  TrumbuH,  i.  260.  ' 


184:  HISTORY   OF   COlSriSrECTICUT. 

raise  neither  men  nor  money  for  the  war.  Still  they  re- 
solved that  Sedgwick  and  Leverett  might  enrol  five  hundred 
volunteers  in  Massachusetts  if  they  could.*  The  commis- 
sioners decided  that  an  army  of  about  eight  hundred  men 
would  be  sufficient  to  reduce  the  Dutch  to  subjection.f  The 
ships  were  to  furnish  two  hundred,  three  hundred  volunteers 
were  to  be  raised,  if  they  could  be,  in  Massachusetts;  Con- 
necticut was  to  send  two  hundred,  and  New  Haven  one  hun- 
dred and  thirty-three.  All  this  bustle  and  preparation  was 
nipped  in  its-first  beginnings  by  the  news — not  very  grateful 
to  Connecticut  and  New  Haven — that  England  and  Holland 
were  again  at  peace. 

Major  Sedgwick  employed  this  fleet  and  the  Massachusetts 
volunteers  to  drive  the  French  from  Penobscot,  St.  John's, 
and  the  adjacent  coasts.  It  is  needless  to  say  that  he  would 
not  have  dared  to  do  it  had  he  not  acted  under  secret  instruc- 
tions from  Cromwell.  J 

*  Hazard,  i.  587, 589  ;  Hutchinson,  i.  1G9.      t  Records  of  the  United  Colonics. 

i  The  following  letter  from  the  renowned  geologist,  Professor  Adam  Sedg- 
wick, of  Cambridge  University,  England,  addressed  to  General  Charles  F.  Sedg- 
wick, of  Sharon,  Connecticut,  contains  much  valuable  information  relative  to  the 
family  of  Major  General  Roberta  Sedgwick,  who  is  the  ancestor  of  all  the  Sedg- 
wicks  in  New  England.  This  letter  cannot  fail  to  interest  the  public.  It  is  in- 
trinsically a  gem,  aside  from  the  great  name  of  its  author. 

«gj^.  "Cambridge,  Feb.  26,  183 Y. 

"After  an  absence  from  the  University  of  several  months  I  returned  to  my 
chambers  yesterday,  and  found  your  letter  on  my  study  table.  I  first  supposed 
that  it  might  have  been  there  some  time,  but  on  looking  at  the  date,  I  was  greatly 
surprised  that  it  had  reached  me  in  a  little  more  than  three  weeks  after  it  had 
been  committed  to  the  post  on  the  other  side  of  the  Atlantic.  Of  your  patriarch, 
Robert  Sedgwick,  I  have  often  heard,  as  the  active  part  he  took  during  the  pro- 
tectorate, made  him,  in  some  measure,  an  historical  character ;  and  about  the 
same  time  there  were  one  or  two  Puritan  divines  of  considerable  note  and  of  the 
same  name ;  but  whether  or  no  they  were  relations  of  his,  I  am  not  able  to  in- 
form you.  The  clan  was  settled  from  very  early  times,  among  the  mountains 
which  form  the  borders  of  Lancashire,  Yorkshire,  and  Westmoreland,  and  I  be- 
lieve every  family  in  this  island  of  the  name  of  Sedgwick  can  trace  its  descent 
from  ancestors  who  were  settled  among  those  mountiins.  The  name  among  the 
country  ])eople  in  the  valleys  in  the  north  of  England,  is  pronounced  Sigswick, 
and  the  oldest  spelling  of  it  that  I  can  find  is  Siggeswick  ;  at  least  it  is  so  written 


THE   SEDGWICKS.  185 

Owing  to  the  steady  opposition  of  Massachusetts,  the  war 
that  had  been  previously  declared  against  Ninigret  had  not 
been  pursued ;  and  that  Indian  had  become  so  much  em- 

in  many  of  our  old  parish  records  that  go  back  to  the  reign  of  Henry  VIII.  It  is 
good  German,  and  means  the  village  of  victory,  probably  designating  some  place 
of  successful  broil,  where  our  rude  Saxon  or  Danish  ancestors  first  settled  in  the 
country  and  drove  the  old  Celtic  tribes  out  of  it,  or  into  the  remoter  recesses  of  the 
Cambrian  mountains,  where  we  meet  with  many  Celtic  names  at  this  day.  But 
in  the  valleys  where  the  Sedgwicks  are  chiefly  found,  the  names  are  almost  ex- 
clusively Saxon  or  Danish.  Ours,  therefore,  in  very  early  days  was  a  true  bor- 
der clan.  The  name  of  Sedgwick  was,  I  believe,  a  corruption  given  like  many 
others  through  a  wish  to  explain  the  meaning  of  a  name,  (Siggeswick,)  the  real 
import  of  which  was  quite  forgotten.  The  word  Sedge  is  not  known  in  the  nothern 
dialects  of  our  island,  and  the  plant  itself  does  not  exist  among  our  valley,  but  a 
branch  of  our  clan  settled  in  the  low,  marshy  regions  of  Lincolnshire,  and  seems 
to  have  first  adopted  the  more  modern  spelling,  and  at  the  same  time  began  to  use 
a  bundle  of  sedge  (with  the  leaves  di'ooping  like  the  ears  of  a  corn  sheaf,)  as  the 
family  crest.  This  branch  was  nfever  numerous,  and  is,  I  believe,  now  almost  ex- 
tinct. Indeed  the  Sedgwicks  never  seem,  (at  least  in  England,)  to  flourish  away 
from  their  native  mountains.  If  you  remove  them  to  the  low  country,  they  droop 
and  die  away  in  a  few  generations.  A  still  older  crest,  and  one  which  suits  the 
history  of  the  race,  is  an  eagle  with  spread  wings.  Within  my  memory,  eagles  ex- 
isted among  the  higher  mountains,  visible  from  my  native  valley.  The  arms  most 
commonly  borne  by  the  Sedgwicks,  are  composed  of  a  red  Greek  cross,  with  five 
bells  attached  to  the  bars.  I  am  too  ignorant  of  heraldic  terms  to  describe  the  shield 
cori-eetly — I  believe,  however,  that  this  is  the  shield  of  the  historical  branch,  and 
that  there  is  another  shield  belonging  to  the  Siggeswicks  of  the  mountains,  with 
a  different  quartering,  but  1  have  it  not  before  me  and  do  not  remember  it  suffi- 
ciently well  to  give  any  account  of  it.  All  the  border  clans,  and  ours  among  the 
rest,  suffered  greatly  during  the  wars  of  York  and  Lancaster.  After  the  Refor- 
mation they  seem  generally  to  have  leaned  to  the  Puritanical  side,  and  many  of 
them,  your  ancestor  among  the  rest,  served  in  Cromwell's  army.  From  the 
Reformation  to  the  latter  half  of  the  last  century,  our  border  country  enjoyed  great 
prosperity.  The  valleys  were  subdivided  into  small  properties ;  each  head  of  a 
family  lived  on  his  own  estate,  and  such  a  thing  as  a  rented  farm  hardly  existed 
in  the  whole  country,  which  was  filled  with  a  race  of  happy,  independent  yeo- 
manry. This  was  the  exact  condition  of  your  clansmen  in  this  part  of  England. 
They  were  kept  in  a  kind  of  humble  affluence,  by  the  manufactory  of  their  wool, 
which  was  produced  in  great  abundance  by  the  vast  flocks  of  sheep  which  were 
fed  on  the  neighboring  mountains.  I  myself,  remember  two  or  three  old  men  of 
the  last  century,  who  in  their  younger  days  had  been  in  the  yearly  habit  of  riding 
up  to  London  to  negotiate  the  sale  of  stockings,  knit  by  the  hands  of  the  lasses  of 
our  own  smiling  valleys.  The  changes  of  manners,  and  the  progress  of  machin- 
ery, destroyed,  root  and  branch,  this  source  of  rural  wealth ;  and  a  dismal  change 
has  now  taken  place  in  the  social  and  moral  aspect  of  the  land  of  your  fathers. 


186  HISTORY   OP   CONNECTICUT. 

boldened  by  the  pacific  demeanor  of  the  Enghsh  towards  him, 
that  he  continued  to  follow  up  the  interdicted  hostilities 
against  the  Long  Island  Indians,  with  renewed  vigor.  These 
Indians  were  allies  of  Connecticut,  and  he  well  knew  that 
the  faith  of  the  colony  was  pledged  to  defend  them. 

Connecticut  now  sent  Major  Mason  with  a  small  number 
of  men,  and  with  a  supply  of  ammunition,  as  a  present  to  the 
sachem  of  Montauket,  which  he  was  not  to  use  to  injure 
Ninigret,  but  simply  to  defend  himself*  New  Haven,  also, 
sent  Lieutenant  Seely  with  men  to  join  Mason  at  Saybrook, 
and  aid  him  in  encouras-ing  and  defending  the  Montauket 
Indians. f 

In  September,  the  Congress  met  at  Hartford  and  soon  sent 
messengers  to  Ninigret,  commanding  him  forthwith  to  ap- 
pear before  them.  Ninigret  sent  back  a  very  argumenta- 
tive and  elaborate  answer,  the  purport  of  which  was,  "  that 
he  would  neither  go  to  Hartford  nor  send  an  ambassador 
there  to  treat  with  the  Congress,  and  that  he  owed  no  tribute 
on  account  of  the  Pequots."J  The  commissioners  ordered 
forty  horsemen  and  two  hundred  and  fifty  foot  soldiers, §  to  be 
raised  and  sent  into  his  country  to  bring  him  to  a  better  frame 
of  mind.  The  Congress  nominated  three  gentlemen,  Major 
Gibbons,  Major  Denison,  and  Ninigret's  old  acquaintance, 

It  is  now  a  very  poor  country,  a  great  portion  of  the  old  yeomanry,  (provincially 
called  statesmen,)  has  been  swept  away.  Most  of  the  family  estates  (some  of 
which  had  descended  from  father  to  son  for  two  or  three  hundred  years,)  have 
been  sold  to  strangers.  The  evil  has,  I  hope,  reached  its  crisis,  and  the  country 
may  improve,  but  it  seems  morally  impossible  that  it  should  ever  again  assume  the 
happy  Arcadian  character  which  it  had  before  the  changes  that  undermined  its 
whole  social  system. 

I  have  now  told  you  all  I  can  compress  into  one  sheet,  of  the  land  of  your  fathers' 
fathers,  of  the  ancestors  of  that  pilgrim  from  whom  my  transatlantic  cousins  are 
descended.  A  few  families  have  survived  the  shock  ;  mine  among  the  rest.  And 
I  have  a  brother  in  the  valley  of  Dent,  who  now  enjoys  a  property  which  our 
family  lias  had  ever  since  the  Reformation.  I  fear  you  will  think  this  information 
very  trifling — such  as  it  is,  it  is  very  much  at  your  service.  Believe  me,  Sir,  your 
very  faithful  servant,  A.  Sedgwick." 

*  J.  II.  Trumbull,  i.  295.  +  New  Haven  Colonial  Records. 

i  See  Holmes'  Annals,  i.  301. 

§  Records  United  Colonics;  Hutchinson  i.  172  ;  Trumbull,  i.  223. 


[1654.]  WILLARD'S   EXPEDITION".  187 

Captain  Humphrey  Atherton,  leaving  it  to  the  discretion  of 
Massachusetts  to  select  any  one  of  them  to  take  the  chief 
command.  All  these  nominees  were  gallant  and  skillful  offi- 
cers, who  would  soon  have  brought  the  refractory  chief  to 
terms.  But  for  reasons  best  known  to  the  General  Court  of 
Massachusetts,  they  were  all  rejected,  and  Major  Willard 
was  appointed.  Willard  had  orders  from  the  Congress  to 
move  forward  by  the  1.3th  of  October,  march  directly  to 
Ninigret's  quarters,  and  demand  of  him  the  Pequots  who  had 
been  entrusted  to  his  care,  and  the  unpaid  tribute.  In  case 
of  a  refusal,  he  was  to  take  both  Pequots  and  tribute  by  vio- 
lent means.  He  was  farther  instructed  to  demand  of  the  Ni- 
hantick  sachem  to  desist  from  waging  the  war  with  the 
Montauket  Indians.  Should  Ninigret  fail  to  comply  with 
this  order,  force  was  to  be  employed  to  bring  him  to  subjec- 
tion. Willard  either  acted  under  secret  instructions  from 
Massachusetts,  or  he  was  not  possessed  of  the  courage  be- 
coming the  leader  of  such  an  enterprise.  On  arriving  at  the 
principal  village  of  the  Nihanticks,  he  found  it  deserted. 
The  corn  and  other  valuables  had  been  left  in  the  care  of  a 
few  old  men,  squaws  and  children,  and  Ninigret  had  taken 
refuge  in  a  swamp  about  fifteen  miles  distant  from  the  vil- 
lage. Without  going  in  search  of  the  fugitive  chief,  or  so 
much  as  making  known  to  him  the  object  of  this  apparently 
friendly  visit,  the  heroic  Willard  brought  back  his  army 
without  any  awkward  accident  of  bloodshed  or  harsh  words 
to  qualify  the  pleasure  that  he  must  have  felt  in  the  wearing 
of  laurels  so  innocently  won.  About  one  hundred  Pequots, 
who  had  suffered  every  thing  but  death  from  the  cruelties 
practiced  upon  them  by  Ninigret,  took  advantage  of  his 
absence  and  followed  the  army  to  Connecticut,  where  they 
put  themselves  under  the  protection  of  the  English.* 

The  Congress  did  not  receive  Major  Willard  with  much 
cordiality.  It  was  in  vain  that  he  attempted  to  excuse  his 
inertness  by  professing  not  to  understand  his  instructions. 
The  disappointed  commissioners  coldly  replied — "  while  the 

*  Holmes,  i.  301,  302  ;  Hutchinson,  i.  172. 


188  HISTORY   OF   CONI-TECTICUT. 

army  was  in  the  Narragansett  country,  Ninigret  had  his 
mouth  in  the  dust."  If  Willard  acted  under  private  instruc- 
tions from  Massachusetts,  as  governor  Hutchinson  v^^ould 
seem  to  intimate,  that  colony  departed  for  once  from  her 
usual  frank  and  open  manner,  to  do  what  was  wholly  un- 
worthy of  her. 

The  attempt  on  the  part  of  Connecticut  to  defend  the 
Long  Island  Indians,  was  honorable  and  necessary  to  the 
preservation  of  her  faith.  Besides,  it  was  both  impolitic  and 
unjust,  irrespective  of  the  existing  treaty,  to  allow  Ninigret, 
upon  false  pretexts,  to  wage  a  war  with  those  defenseless  In- 
dians. The  fact  that  he  had  drawn  over  to  his  interests  the 
Wampanoags,  was  of  itself,  as  Massachusetts  learned  to  her 
cost  at  a  later  day,  no  inconsiderable  cause  for  alarm.  But 
it  is  quite  time  that  this  old  quarrel  was  forgotten,  and  I  feel 
no  disposition  to  revive  any  discussion  in  relation  to  it. 

The  refugee  Pequots  begged  so  earnestly  to  be  taken 
under  the  protection  of  the  English,  that  their  prayer  was  at 
last  granted,  and  they  had  lands  assigned  them  on  the  Paw- 
catuck  and  Mistick  rivers.  They  were  allowed  the  privilege 
of  hunting  on  that  tract  of  wild  forest  land  lying  west  of  the 
Mistick,  and  were  placed  under  the  direction  of  an  Indian 
governor,  who  ruled  them  according  to  a  code  specially  pro- 
vided for  them. 

Ninigret  was  now  more  haughty  than  ever,  and  kept  the 
whole  eastern  portion  of  Long  Island  in  commotion  by  his 
boisterous  manner  of  prosecuting  the  war  against  the  Mon- 
taukets.  The  inhabitants  of  East  Hampton  and  SouthHamp- 
ton  especially  complained  to  the  Congress  of  his  reckless  be- 
havior towards  them.  The  Rev.  Mr.  James,  minister  of  the 
former  place,  and  Captain  Tapping  of  the  latter,  both  wi'ote 
urgent  letters,  calling  for  interference.  In  obedience  to  this 
call,  an  armed  vessel,  under  the  command  of  Captain  John 
Youngs,  was  stationed  in  the  road  between  Neanticut  and 
Long  Island  to  watch  the  movements  of  Ninigret.*  Youngs 
was  authorized  to  draft  men  from  Saybrook  and  New  Lon- 

*  Trumbull,  i.  225, 


[1655.] 


DEATH  OF  HEISTEY  WOLCOTT.  189 


don,  if  he  needed  them.  Should  Ninigret  attempt  to  cross 
the  Sound,  Youngs  was  ordered  to  stave  in  his  canoes,  and 
to  kill  him,  and  as  many  of  his  warriors  as  he  could.  The 
most  thorough  measures  were  taken  at  the  same  time  to 
protect  both  the  Indians  and  the  English  upon  Long 
Island. 

This  sanguinary  order  resulted  in  no  harm  to  Ninigret, 
except  that  he  was  obliged  to  stay  at  home,  and  abide  his 
time  for  falling  upon  his  enemies.  This  he  did  not  soon 
find  an  opportunity  to  do,  as  Connecticut  and  New  Haven 
at  their  own  expense  continued  to  keep  the  armed  vessel  for 
still  another  year  cruising  along  his  coast.  It  was  a  very 
unpleasant  constraint  upon  his  movements  and  power  to  do 
mischief,  but  he  was  obliged  to  submit  with  as  good  grace  as 
he  could. 

It  is  a  very  trite  observation,  and  has  been  found 
true  in  human  experience,  with  nations  as  with  individ- 
uals, that  calamities  journey  not  alone ;  but  by  some  subtle 
law  of  affinity,  are  grouped  together,  and  sustain  each  to 
the  other  a  mournful  yet  instructive  relationship.  So  was 
it  with  Connecticut  during  this  interesting  period  of  her 
history. 

Scarcely  had  she  brushed  from  her  cheek  the  tear-drops 
that  betokened  her  sorrow  at  the  death  of  Haynes,  when 
again  her  eye  was  dimmed  with  the  signs  of  a  new  bereave- 
ment. In  the  78th  year  of  his  age,  but  with  a  judgment  un- 
clouded, and  his  usefulness  unimpaired,  the  venerable  Henry 
Wolcott,  one  of  the  principal  magistrates  and  advisers  of 
the  colony,  quickly  followed  his  friend  and  comrade  to  the 
grave.  I  cannot  help  making  a  brief  mention  of  him,  and 
yet  were  I  to  speak  at  any  considerable  length  of  all  the 
bright  examples  of  patriotism  and  exalted  worth  that  have 
borne  the  name  of  Wolcott  in  Connecticut,  I  should  find 
this  work  extending  itself  beyond  the  limits  that  I  had 
marked  out  for  it. 

Henry  Wolcott,  Esquire,  the  ancestor  of  all  the  Wolcotts 
oi   this  state,  was  of  a  very  ancient  family,  and  the  owner 


190  HISTORY   OF   CONNECTICUT. 

of  a  large  estate  in  Somersetshire.*  He  was  born  in  Tol- 
land on  the  6th  of  December  1578,  and  was  the  son  and 
heir  of  John  Wolcott  of  Golden  Manor.  The  manor-house 
is  still  standing,  and  is  of  very  great  antiquity  and  extent. 
It  was  originally  a  splendid  mansion,  designed,  as  well  for  the 
purposes  of  defense  against  the  excesses  of  a  lawless  age,  as 
for  a  permanent  family  residence.  It  is  still  richly  orna- 
mented with  carved-work,  and  if  left  to  itself  unassailed  by 
the  hand  of  violence,  it  will  stand  for  ages.  The  familiar 
motto  of  the  family  arms,  borrowed  from  the  Roman  poet,  is 
still  to  be  seen  upon  the  walls  of  the  manor-house,  its  bold 
words  informing  us  that  the  family  who  have  adopted  it  as 
their  text  of  life  were  "  accustomed  to  swear  in  the  words  of 

*  Through  the  researches  of  Mr.  Somerby,  of  Boston,  in  the  herald's  of5ee> 
among  the  subsidy  rolls,  wills,  and  parish  records  of  England,  the  genealogy  of 
Henry  Wolcott,  Esquire,  (the  emigrant,)  has  been  traced,  through  fifteen  gener- 
ations, back  to  Sir  John  Wolcott,  knight,  as  follows  : 

1 .  Jeran  Wolcott,  (son  of  Sir  John,)  of  Wolcott,  who  married  Anna,  daughter 
of  John  M5Tide,  of  Shropshire. 

2.  Roger  Wolcott,  of  Wolcott,  who  married  Edith,  daughter  of  Sir  Wm. 
Donnes,  knight. 

3.  Sir  Philip  Wolcott,  of  Wolcott,  knight,  who  married  Juhan,  daughter  of 
John  Herle. 

4.  John  Wolcott,  of  Wolcott,  who  married  Alice,  daughter  of  David  Lloyd, 
Esq. 

5.  Sir  John  Wolcott,  of  Wolcott,  knight,  A.D.  1382. 

6.  Thomas  Wolcott. 

7.  John  Wolcott. 

8.  John  Wolcott,  of  Wolcott,  who  married  Matilda,  daughter  of  Sir  Richard 
Cornwall,  of  Bereford,  knight. 

9.  Roger  Wolcott,  of  Wolcott,  Esq.,  who  married  Margaret,  daughter  of 
David  Lloyd,  Esq. 

10.  William  Wolcott,  settled  in  Tolland,  Somersetshire. 

11.  William  Wolcott,  who  married  Elizabeth.  His  will  is  dated  A.D., 
1500. 

12.  Thomas  Wolcott,  who  was  living  in  Tolland  In  1552. 

13.  Thomas  Wolcott,  who  married  Alice.     Will  dated  Nov.  4,  1572. 

14., John  Wolcott,  of  Golden  Manor,  in  Tolland.  Will  proved,  Nov.  10, 
1623. 

15.  Henrj'  Wolcott,  (the  emigrant,)  who  conveyed  the  manor  house  to  his  son 
Henry. 


HENRY   WOLCOTT,  191 

no  master."*  It  is  alike  in  keeping  with  the  independent 
spirit  of  an  English  gentleman  of  the  middle  ages,  and  with 
that  of  a  Puritan  of  the  17th  century  who  spurned  the 
dictation  of  ecclesiastical  dominion. 

In  his  early  life  Henry  Wolcott  lived  after  the  manner  of 
the  landed  gentry,  at  an  era  when  the  term  "  country  squire  " 
was  synonymous  with  whatever  was  bold,  athletic,  and  hardy 
in  the  steeple-chasing,  hospitable  days  of  "merry  England." 
But  as  years  stole  on,  and  the  principles  of  the  Reformation, 
making  little  progress  at  first,  began  to  invade  not  only  the 
wrestling-ring  of  the  yeoman,  and  the  counting-room  of  the 
merchant,  but  the  hall  of  the  country  gentleman,  Wolcott, 
among  others,  was  led  to  direct  his  thoughts  to  more  serious 
topics,  than  the  pastimes  that  had  engrossed  his  earlier 
manhood.  While  meditations  respecting  a  future  state  of 
being  occupied  his  mind,  a  religious  teacher,  Mr.  Edward 
Elton,  became  his  guide,  and  led  him  to  that  clear  under- 
standing of  the  doctrines  of  Christianity,  and  those  firm  con- 
victions of  its  truth  that  remained  with  him  to  the  day  of 
his  death.  Of  an  ardent  temperament  and  lively  sensibili- 
ties, and  seeing  much  that  needed  to  be  reformed  in  the 
severities  practiced  upon  so  many  of  the  best  subjects  of  the 
realm,  he  soon  became  identified  with  the  Puritan  party, 
sold  a  large  estate  in  lands,  including  the  manor-house,  for 
which  he  received  about  eight  thousand  pounds  sterling, 
probably  much  less  than  its  value,  and  made  preparations 
to  spend  the  remainder  of  his  days  in  America.  In  1628  he 
visited  New  England  to  examine  the  country,  and  returned. 

*  "  Nullius  addictus  jurare  in  verba  magistri."  In  relation  to  the  Wolcott 
coat  of  arms,  the  following  anecdote  may  not  be  without  interest  to  such  as  are 
curious  in  matters  of  heraldry.  John  Wolcott,  of  Wolcott,  who  lived  in  the 
reign  of  Henry  the  Fifth,  and  who  married  Matilda,  daughter  of  Sir  Richard 
Cornwall,  of  Bereford,  knight,  assumed  for  his  arms,  the  three  chess  rooks, 
instead  of  the  crow,  with  the  "  fleurs  de  lis,"  borne  by  his  ancestors.  It  is  re- 
corded of  him  in  the  old  family  pedigree,  that  "  playinge  at  the  cliesse  with 
Henry  the  Fifth,  kinge  of  England,  he  gave  hym  (the  king)  the  checke  matte 
with  the  rourke  ;  whereupon  the  kinge  changed  his  coate  of  arms,  which  was  the 
crowe  and  fleur  de  leues,  and  gave  him  the  rourke  for  a  remembrance." 


192  HISTORY   OF   CONNECTICUT. 

His  sympathetic  nature  could  not  fail  to  attach  itself  insepa- 
rably to  the  self-accusing  though  charitable  and  delicate 
Wareham,  and  he  sailed  with  him  for  the  new  world  in  the 
same  ship,  and  arrived  in  Massachusetts  in  May,  1630. 
Roger  Ludlow  was  of  the  same  party.  Wolcott  remained 
in  Dorchester  until  1636,  when  he  removed  to  Windsor 
upon  the  Connecticut  river.  He  was,  as  most  of  our  best 
early  inhabitants  were,  a  planter,  and  was  the  principal  one 
in  Windsor.  He  was  a  member  of  the  General  Court  of 
Connecticut  in  1639. 

In  1643  he  was  chosen  into  the  magistracy,  and  continued 
to  be  one  of  its  most  safe  and  immovable  pillars  till  his  death 
in  1655.*  His  monument  of  imperishable  sandstone,  built  by 
the  same  hands  that  fashioned  the  one  that  stands  over  the 
Fenwick  tomb  at  Saybrook,  has  been  always  a  shrine  to 
tempt  towards  it  the  feet  of  his  numerous  descendants,  who 
have  piously  guarded  it,  and  lovingly  adorned  it,  for  two 
hundred  years.  Time  has  spared,  and  the  gray  moss  has 
not  obliterated,  the  quaint  and  simple  epitaph,  whose  plain 
lettering  tells  us  that  it  is  the  resting  place  of  "  Henry  Wol- 
cott, some  time  a  magistrate  of  this  jurisdiction." 

The  colony  of  New  Haven  was  regarded  by  Cromwell 
with  singular  favor.  The  Protector  had  brought  Jamaica 
within  the  power  of  the  British  govei-nment,  and  entertained 
the  hope  that  he  should  be  able  to  people  it  with  the  inhabi- 
tants of  New  England,  who,  he  thought,  might  be  induced 
to  leave  a  sterile  region  in  exchange  for  the  prodigal  fruits 
and  genial  atmosphere  of  a  more  tropical  clime.  With  this 
view,  in  1656,  he  wrote  letters  to  his  friends  in  New  Haven, 
wherein  he  adroitly  appealed  to  their  sense  of  religious  duty, 
telling  them,  in  the  phraseology  of  the  day,  that  they  had 
"  as  clear  a  call  "  to  remove  to  that  island,  as  they  formerly 
had  for  leaving  their  native  land  for  New  England.  These 
letters  were  laid  before  the  Court  by  Governor  Eaton,  and 
their  contents  made  the  subject  of  earnest  debates.  After  a 
careful  discussion,  the  court  resolved  that,  much  as  they  re 

*  Trumbull,!.  226,227. 


[1656.]  TROUBLES  AT   GREENWICH.  193 

garded  the  love  that  his  highness  bore  them,  "  yet  for  divers 
reasons  they  could  not  conclude  that  God  called  them  at 
present  to  remove  thither."* 

This  year,  from  representations  previously  made  at 
New  Haven,  that  the  people  of  Greenwich  lived  in  a 
disorderly  and  riotous  way,  sold  intoxicating  liquors  to  the 
Indians,  received  and  harbored  servants  who  had  fled  from 
their  masters,  and  joined  persons  unlawfully  in  marriage, 
the  General  Court  of  that  colony  resolved  to  assert  their 
jurisdiction  over  the  town  and  bring  its  citizens  to  a  more 
orderly  manner  of  demeaning  themselves.  In  May,  the 
General  Court  sent  a  letter,  calling  upon  those  living  at 
Gi'eenwich  to  submit  to  its  authority.  They  returned  an 
answer  couched  in  very  spirited  language,  declaring  that 
New  Haven  had  no  right  to  set  up  such  a  claim,  and  that 
they  never  would  submit  to  it  unless  compelled  to  do  so  by 
parliament.  But  when  the  spirit  of  such  men  as  Eaton  and 
Davenport  pervades  a  legislative  body,  it  is  not  easily  driven 
from  any  position  that  has  been  deliberately  taken.  The 
General  Court  passed  a  resolve,  that  unless  the  recusants 
should  appear  in  open  court,  and  make  a  formal  submission 
by  the  25th  of  June,  Richard  Crabbe  and  some  others  who 
were  most  stubborn  in  their  opposition,  should  be  arrested 
and  punished  according  to  law.  This  had  the  effect  intend- 
ed ;  Crabbe  and  others,  who  were  not  ready  for  martyrdom, 
yielded  with  as  good  grace  as  they  could. f 

The  Indians  in  Connecticut,  who  had  been  kept  in  check 
for  some  time,  now  found  it  impossible  any  longer  to  restrain 
their  bad  passions.  With  the  exception  of  an  occasional 
outbreak  of  malice,  and  the  constant  flow  of  falsehood  and 
subtlety  that  could  hardly  be  expected  to  rest  even  during 
the  hours  of  sleep,  Uncas  had  been  very  exemplary  in  his 
conduct  for  a  long  time.  But  as  one  extreme  is  said  to  lead 
to  another,  he  suddenly  made  amends  for  his  good  behavior 
by  an  outrageous  and  unprovoked  attack  upon  the  Podunk 
Indians  at  Hartford.     He  embroiled  the  whole  Indian  popu- 

*  New  Haveu  Colonial  Records.        f  Trumbull,  i.  229. 
13 


194  HISTORY   OF   CONNECTICUT. 

lation  wherever  he  could  exert  any  influence,  setting  one 
tribe  in  opposition  to  another,  by  circulating  every  kind  of 
scandal  and  gossip,  and  representing  the  different  sachems 
as  speaking  such  haughty  and  impious  words  concerning 
their  neighbors,  as  best  suited  his  plans.  He  taunted  the 
Narragansetts  v/ith  the  loss  of  Miantinomoh,  whom  he  had 
himself  murdered,  and  challenged  them  to  fight.  He  even 
proved  false  to  the  interests  of  the  Montauket  sachem,  and 
espoused  the  cause  of  his  old  enemy,  Ninigret.  The  Con- 
gress had  enough  to  do  to  quench  the  flames  of  discontent 
lighted  up  in  so  many  places  at  once  by  this  Indian.  They 
obliged  him  to  make  restitution  to  the  tribes  that  he  had 
wronged,  so  far  as  they  were  able  to  follow  the  sly  trail  of 
his  mischief.  There  was  nothing  that  Uncas  disliked  so 
much  as  to  make  an  honorable  restitution.  It  humbled  his 
pride  ;  and  what  was  vrorse,  it  made  an  appeal  to  the  most 
grasping  and  confirmed  avarice.  The  English  knew  his 
weak  points  of  character  almost  as  well  as  he  knev/  theirs, 
and  were  generally  able  to  bring  him  to  a  temporary  state 
of  quiesence — but  keep  him  quiet  they  never  could  for  any 
considerable  period  of  time. 

The  colony  of  New  Haven,  on  the  7th  of  January  1657, 
sustained  an  irreparable  loss  in  the  death  of  Theophilus 
Eaton,  who  had  been  its  principal  patron,  and  who  had  held 
the  place  of  governor  from  the  first  establishment  of  the 
colonial  government  until  he  died.  He  was  the  son  of  an 
English  clergyman,  and  was  born  at  Stony  Stratford,  in 
Oxfordshire.  He  was  bred  a  merchant,  and  was  carefully 
educated.  He  was  for  several  years  the  agent  of  the  East 
Land  or  Baltic  Company,  and  discharged  his  trust  with  such 
ability  that  he  received  from  that  corporation  the  highest 
expressions  of  confidence,  and  many  rich  presents.  He  was 
also  for  some  time  an  ambassador  of  the  king,  at  the  court 
of  Denmark.  On  his  return  home,  he  established  himself  as 
a  merchant  in  the  metropolis,  where  he  continued  to  add  to 
his  wealth,  until  his  removal  to  America  in  1637. 

At  New  Haven  he  attempted  to  carry  on  his  old  pursuits, 


[1657.]  DEATH  OF   GOVERNOR   EATON,  195 

but  soon  abandoned  them  for  agriculture.  His  public  duties 
occupied  a  large  portion  of  his  time.  As  a  judge  he  was 
impartial,  clear-sighted,  and  inflexible.  His  magisterial 
presence  was  calm  and  majestic,  as  well  from  an  easy  and 
graceful  bearing,  the  result  of  a  native  manliness,  and  an 
extended  acquaintance  with  the  world,  as  from  a  command- 
ing figure,  and  a  very  handsome,  open  countenance.  He 
possessed  the  qualities  of  a  good  statesman,  and,  ingenuous 
as  he  was,  he  was  still  eminently  fitted  to  be  a  diplomatist. 
In  private  life,  strict  and  severe  in  the  discharge  of  all  his 
religious  duties,  he  was  yet  a  model  of  affability  and  gentle- 
manly courtesy.  He  managed  his  large  household  with  sys- 
tematic regularity.  He  cared  for  the  moral  and  religious 
culture  of  the  humblest  servants  beneath  his  roof,  and  al- 
though he  lost  no  suitable  occasion  to  inculcate  a  lesson, 
he  did  it  with  such  well-timed  delicacy,  that  they  re- 
garded it  as  an  act  of  aifectionate  condescension,  rather 
than  as  a  rebuke,  when  he  chid  them  for  a  fault.  He  was 
one  of  the  few  men  who  know  how  to  employ  an  ample 
fortune  munificently,  and  yet  for  the  benefit  of  themselves, 
and  of  society. 

His  death  was  very  sudden  and  unexpected.  He  had  not 
been  known  to  be  ill,  when,  on  the  evening  of  the  7th  of 
January,  he  entered  the  apartment  of  his  invalid  wife  to  bid 
her  a  kindly  good  night ;  "  Methinks  you  look  sad,"  said 
Mrs.  Eaton,  inquiringly.  "  The  differences  in  the  church  at 
Hartford  make  me  sad,"  replied  the  good  man.  Thinking  it 
a  fair  opportunity  to  press  upon  his  mind  a  topic  that  she 
had  much  at  heart,  this  lady  (who  was  a  daughter  of  Bishop 
Morton,  and  was  ill-satisfied  with  her  husband's  abode  in  a 
neighborhood  so  uncongenial  to  her,)  resumed  with  much 
warmth,  "  Let  us  even  go  back  to  our  native  country."  "  I 
shall  die  here,"  said  the  governor,  and  immediately  left  the 
room.  These  were  the  last  words  he  ever  addressed  to  her. 
About  midnight  a  deep  groan  was  heard  in  his  bed-chamber. 
A  member  of  his  household,  who  slept  near  by,  rushed  anx- 


196  HISTORY   OF   CONNECTICUT. 

iously  into  the  room  to  inquire  the  cause.  "  I  am  very  ill," 
said  the  dying  man,  and  instantly  expired.* 

His  funeral  was  deferred  until  the  11th  of  the  month,  and 
took  place,  as  the  secretary  tells  us  with  a  minuteness  that 
evinces  the  keenness  of  the  public  sorrow,  and  the  im- 
portance of  the  event,  at  "about  two  o'clock  in  the  after- 
noon." His  death  was  deeply  felt  in  all  the  colonies,  but  the 
heaviest  blow  fell  upon  New  Haven,  where  he  had  so  long 
shed  such  a  benign  example.  His  great  wealth,  his  un- 
bounded hospitality,  his  christian  virtues,  his  honesty  and  his 
fearlessness,  have  still  a  traditionary  fame  in  the  city  that 
was  laid  out  under  his  eye,  and  beautified  by  his  hand. 

Almost  at  the  same  time,  died  Edward  Hopkins,  Esquire, 
son-in-law  of  Eaton,  for  several  years  governor  of  Connecti- 
cut. Like  Eaton  he  also  was  a  wealthy  London  merchant, 
and  from  the  same  causes  of  discontent  left  England  under 
the  guidance  of  the  strong-willed,  bold-hearted  Davenport. 
Hopkins  was  not  pleased  with  the  mode  of  government  es- 
stablished  at  New  Haven,  and  soon  took  up  his  abode  at 
Hartford,  where  he  was  chosen  a  magistrate  in  1639.  The 
next  year  he  was  elected  governor  of  Connecticut,  and 
continued  to  serve  in  that  capacity  every  alternate  year 
until  1654.  Soon  after  this,  he  sailed  for  England,  where 
his  merits  were  acknowledged  with  equal  readiness,  for 
he  was  successively  chosen  wai-den  of  the  English  fleet, 
commissioner  of  the  admiralty  and  navy,  and  a  member  of 
parliament.  He  was  chiefly  eminent  for  his  solid  under- 
standing, his  integrity,  and  for  the  mild  exercise  of  the 
Christian  charities.  Though  he  left  Connecticut,  and  did 
not  lay  his  bones  in  her  soil,  yet  it  is  evident  that  his  heart 
was  never  alienated  from  her,  for  in  his  will  he  gave  nearly 
all  that  part  of  his  property  still  remaining  in  New  England 
to  trustees,  to  dispose  of  it  for  the  "  breeding  up  of  hopeful 
youths  in  a  way  of  learning."  The  trustees  very  judiciously 
gave  the  legacy,  amounting  to   about  one  thousand  pounds 

*  Mather's  Magnalia,  ii.  29  ;  Bacon's  Hist.  Dis.,  110. 


FIRST  SETTLEMENT   OF  STONINGTON.  197 

sterling,  to  aid  in  the  support  of  two  grammar  schools,  one 
at  Hartford,  and  the  other  at  New  Haven.  He  also  gave 
five  hundred  pounds  out  of  his  estate  in  England  to  charita- 
ble purposes,  but  in  such  equivocal  language  that  it  was 
finally  made  the  subject  of  a  decree  in  chancery.  It  was 
held  to  belong  to  Harvard  College,  and  the  Grammar  School 
at  Cambridge  in  Massachusetts.* 

As  early  as  1649,  William  Chesebrough,  of  Rehoboth, 
commenced  a  settlement  upon  that  tract  of  land  \ying  be- 
tween the  Mistick  and  Pawcatuck  rivers.  Thomas  Stanton, 
the  interpreter,  also,  about  the  same  time  went  there,  and 
was  the  first  Englishman  who  settled  upon  the  bank  of  the 
Pawcatuck.  He  did  not  remove  his  family  to  the  place 
until  some  time  after  he  had  been  himself  established  there 
as  a  trader  with  the  Indians.  This  tract  of  land  was  called 
Pequot,  and  was  considered  as  a  part  of  New  London. 
Chesebrough  was  a  blacksmith,  and  went  there  under  the 
authority  of  Massachusetts.  The  fear  that  this  worker  in 
metals  would  aid  the  savages  in  repairing  their  fire-arms, 
and  provide  them  with  other  sharp  and  deadly  weapons, 
added  to  the  jealousy  excited  in  the  General  Court  of  Con- 
necticut ;  and  the  fact  that  the  stranger  had  come  to  take 
possession  in  the  name  of  another  jurisdiction,  did  not  at  all 
conduce  to  Chesebrough's  peace  of  mind.  Scarcely  had 
he  built  his  little  hut  on  the  bank  of  the  cove  that  lies  a  little 
to  the  eastward  of  Stonington  Point,  and  begun  to  engage  in 
the  traffic  with  the  Indians  of  Long  Island,  and  perhaps  of 
the  main-land,  when  his  operations  were  interrupted  by  the 
constable  of  Pequot,  ordering  him  in  the  name  of  the  magis- 
trates of  Connecticut  to  desist.  Chesebrough  refused  to 
comply  with  the  order,  as  he  claimed  to  belong  to  the  juris- 
diction of  Massachusetts.  Not  long  after  this,  he  was  com- 
manded to  leave  the  territory  or  appear  before  the  court 
and  defend  himself.  The  alarmed  pioneer  accordingly  in 
March  1651,  presented  himself  before  the  General  Court  at 
Hartford.     He  made  a  very  able  defense.     He  acknowledged 

*  Trumbull,  i.  232,  233  5  Holmes'  Annals,  i.  309,  &c. 


198  HISTORY   OF   CONNECTICUT, 

that  he  had  been  a  blacksmith,  but  asserted  that  he  had  re- 
cently become  a  farmer,  and  had  sold  all  the  tools  that  he 
formerly  used  in  carrying  on  his  trade,  and  had  not  reserved 
enough  "  to  repair  a  gun  lock  or  make  a  screw  pin."  He 
represented  that  he  had  intended  to  settle  in  Pequot  with  the 
other  planters,  but  that  he  could  not  suit  himself  so  well 
there  as  he  could  upon  the  salt  marsh  at  Pawcatuck,  where 
he  could  find  an  immediate  support  for  his  cattle.  He  de- 
clared that  he  .did  not  go  there  to  live  alone  because  he  was 
a  heretic  or  a  heathen ;  and  that  he  believed  in  the  truth  as 
it  was  taught  in  the  New  England  churches.  He  did  not 
expect  when  he  went  there,  to  live  a  great  while  alone,  for 
he  supposed  others  would  soon  follow  him. 

His  arguments  did  not  satisfy  the  court,  yet  upon  his 
giving  bonds  for  his  good  behavior,  and  with  the  assurance 
that  he  would  get  a  respectable  company  to  live  with  him 
before  the  next  winter,  they  suffered  him  to  remain.*  His- 
torians have  conspired  with  the  court  to  wrong  him. 

Thomas  Minor  in  1653  became  an  inhabitant  of  Pawca- 
tuck. In  1657  the  General  Court  appointed  a  committee, 
at  the  head  of  which  was  John  Winthrop,  Esquire,  to  meet 
at  New  London,  and  compare  the  differences  between  that 
plantation,  and  the  people  of  Mistick  and  Pawcatuck. f  By 
this  it  appears  that  considerable  accessions  had  already  been 
made  to  the  population  of  the  disputed  settlement.  In  1658 
several  families  removed  there.  Captain  George  Denison, 
Thomas  Shaw,  and  two  men  of  the  name  of  Palmer,  were 
among  the  early  planters. 

In  1658  the  commissioners  decided  that  the  river  Mistick 
should  be  the  boundary  line  between  the  two  jurisdictions 
of  Massachusetts  and  Connecticut.  Thus  Pawcatuck  be- 
came a  Massachusetts  town,  and  took  the  name  of  Souther- 
ton.  It  was  known  by  that  name,  and  continued  under  the 
government  of  Massachusetts  until  after  the  royal  charter 
of  Charles  II.  was  granted  to  us,  when  it  became  a  part  of 
Connecticut.     In  1665  the  General  Court  decreed  that  the 

*  Trumbull,  i.  235  ;  Caulkins'  New  London,  99, 100.     t  J-  H-  Trumbull,  i.  300. 


[1660.] 


DEATH   OF   GOVERKOK  WELLES.  199 


place  should  be  called  Mistick,  in  commemoration  of  Mason's 
victory.  In  May  1666,  by  a  like  order,  the  name  of  the 
town  was  again  changed  to  that  of  Stonington,  which  it  has 
ever  since  continued  to  bear.*  It  has  been  the  rugged 
nurse  of  some  of  the  most  gallant  and  heroic  men,  who 
have  done  honor  to  the  State  during  the  French  and  Indian 
wars,  and  during  the  more  bitter  and  sanguinary  struggles 
that  belong  to  a  later  day.  The  sons  of  Stonington,  like 
those  of  New  London,  have  for  several  generations  gone  down 
to  the  sea  in  ships,  and  done  business  on  the  great  waters. 

The  names  of  Welles  and  Webster,  at  the  election  of 
1660,  no  longer  appear  in  the  roll  of  the  magistracy.  During 
the  year,  one  had  dropped  "  like  ripe  fruit  seasonably  gath- 
ered," into  the  silent  grave.  The  other  had  sought  a  home 
in  Massachusetts,  where  he  died  in  1665.  Thomas  Welles 
and  John  Webster,  venerable  names,  both  governors  of  Con- 
necticut, whose  virtues  are  still  perpetuated  in  those  v/ho  in- 
herit their  blood.  The  dust  of  Welles  rests  with  that  of 
Wyllys  and  Haynes  in  the  old  cemetery  at  Hartford,  without 
a  stone  to  mark  the  spot. 

Some  time  during  the  year  1657,  while  the  old  feud 
between  the  Narragansetts  and  Mohegans  still  raged  with 
unabated  fury,  Pessacus  advanced  suddenly  upon  the  coun- 
try of  his  enemy,  shut  up  Uncas  in  his  fort,  and  kept  him 
there  in  a  state  of  siege  until  his  situation  seemed  hopeless. 
Hopeless  it  might  have  been  to  any  other  Indian,  but  Uncas 
was  too  fruitfulin  expedients  ever  to  despair.  He  contrived, 
as  a  last  resort,  to  send  runners  to  Saybrook  fort  to  inform 
the  garrison  of  his  critical  situation.  He  bade  them  tell 
the  English  that  famine  and  the  sword  were  impending  over 
him  and  the  whole  Mohegan  tribe,  and  that  the  most  fatal 
consequences  would  result  to  the  English,  should  their  old 
friends  be  destroyed.  The  wily  politician  had  hit  a  very 
sensitive  nerve.  Thomas  Leffingwell,  an  ensign  at  the  fort, 
on  learning  this  piece  of  intelligence,  immediately  loaded  a^ 
canoe  with  provisions,  paddled  it  from  the  mouth  of  the  Con- 

*  Caulkins'  New  Loudon,  104,  106,  &c. 


200  HISTOEY  OP  CONNECTICUT. 

necticut  to  that  of  the  Thames,  and,  under  the  friendly 
screen  of  night,  passed  up  the  river,  and  supplied  the  famish- 
ing Mohegans  with  food.  Thus  recruited  the  beleaguered 
chief  made  such  a  sudden  and  furious  attack  upon  the  panic- 
stricken  Narragansetts,  that  he  drove  them  through  the 
v^^oods,  and  down  the  rocks  with  the  most  complete  and 
terrible  slaughter. 

We  are  told,  though  I  know  not  upon  what  authority, 
that  for  this  daring  exploit  of  Leffingwell,  resulting  in  the 
salvation  of  the  Mohegan  tribe,  Uncas  gave  to  his  deliverer 
a  deed  of  nearly  the  whole  of  the  present  town  of  Norwich. 
However  this  might  be,  and  it  is  not  unlikely,  it  is  quite  cer- 
tain that  in  June,  1659,  Uncas  went  to  Saybrook,  and  there 
gave  to  the  English  company,  that  was  probably  formed  as 
early  as  1653,  for  the  settlement  of  a  town  on  the  head 
waters  of  the  Pequot  river,  a  deed  of  a  tract  of  land  at  Mo- 
hegan, nine  miles  square.  Nothing  was  said  in  the  convey- 
ance about  any  old  debts  of  gratitude  to  be  canceled ;  and 
the  consideration  of  the  deed  was  not  love  and  affection,  but 
seventy  good  pounds.  This  was  the  second  time  that  the 
prudent  vendor  had  sold  it  to  the  English,  and  taken  the 
money  for  it,  unless  he  had  also  in  a  fit  of  gratitude  deeded 
it  to  Leffingwell.  Major  Mason  was  at  the  head  of  the 
company  formed  at  Saybrook  for  the  founding  of  a  new 
town.  There  were  thirty-five  members  of  this  company, 
who  signed  its  articles  of  association,  and  thirty-eight 
original  settlers.  A  few  hardy  men  spent  the  winter  of 
1659  in  temporary  huts  on  the  new  purchase. 

In  the  spring  of  1660,  the  Rev.  James  Fitch,  Major  Mason, 
Mr.  Huntington,  Gifford,  and  the  other  members  of  the 
association,  embracing  the  principal  part  of  Mr.  Fitch's 
church  and  congregation,  removed  to  the  fair  plain  lying  in 
the  folds  of  the  swift  Yantic,  that  coiled  itself  around  it  as 
the  bright-eyed  serpent  holds  the  bird,  in  a  delightful  though 
Jnextricable  enchantment.  The  first  inhabitants  were  men 
of  rare  merit,  and  of  good  family,  as  may  be  seen  by  their 
names  that  have  been  honorable  in  the  state.     Among  them 


NORWICH.  201 

I  may  mention  Tracy,  Griswold,  Smith,  Allyn,  Howard, 
Hyde,  Waterman,  Backus,  Bliss,  Reynolds,  Caulkins,  and 
Reed.  These  are  not  all,  but  the  genealogist  and  town 
historian  have  preceded  me.  The  high,  sharp  ledges  of 
rocks  that  left  their  sombre  shadows  on  the  vale,  or  some- 
times hid  their  sternest  features  behind  the  trees  that  shook 
their  quivering  leaves  above  the  river,  and  its  then  copious 
tributaries,  while  they  lent  their  romantic  beauty  to  the 
town,  served  also  to  screen  it  from  the  winter  winds,  as  the 
Mohegan  chief  and  his  bronzed  warriors  protected  its  in- 
habitants from  the  Nihanticks  and  the  Narragansetts.  Here 
the  fathers  of  Norwich  dwelt  content  in  their  "  happy  valley,'^ 
without  once  dreaming,  perhaps,  that  their  aspiring  sons, 
like  the  Prince  of  Abyssinia,  would  never  rest  until  they 
had  sought  the  hill-tops  whence  they  might  look  off  upon  a 
wider  world.* 

*  The  present  city  of  Norwich  is  on  a  commanding  eminence,  and  affords  one 
of  the  finest  views  in  JSTew  England. 


CHAPTER  X. 


THE  CHAETEE. 

We  have  now  reached  a  point  in  our  journey  where  we 
may  pause  for  a  while  and  take  a  brief  retrospect. 

With  the  year  1603  closed  the  reign  of  Elizabeth.  The 
remainder  of  the  first  quarter  of  the  seventeenth  century  was 
occupied  by  the  bigot  king,  James  Stuart.*  The  next  quar- 
ter of  a  century  we  behold  signalized  at  different  periods  by 
the  most  whimsical  tyranny  and  reckless  violation  of  the 
faith  plighted  over  and  over  again,  on  the  part  of  king 
Charles  I.,  and  by  acts  of  violence,  the  natural  consequence 
of  such  behavior,  on  the  part  of  the  people,  consummated 
by  that  awful  spectacle  then  unknown  in  the  civilized  world, 
and  followed  as  a  precedent  but  once  from  that  day  to  the 
present — that  of  a  maddened  and  misguided  people  sitting  in 
judgment  upon  the  life  of  their  sovereign.  Then  follow  the 
few  stern  years  of  Cromwell's  dominion,  from  whom  Say  and 
Seal,  whose  aid  Charles  had  tried  in  vain  to  buy  with  the 
lure  of  tempting  offices,  turned  away  his  face  with  equal 
pride  and  greater  loathing — a  dominion  that  can  be  regarded 
by  the  right  minded  as  useful  only  in  the  same  sense  that 
destructive  earthquakes  are,  that  throw  down  the  walls  of 
cities,  or  fires  that  consume  their  old  and  tottering  edifices, 
and  thus  make  way  for  more  solid  masonwork,  and  more 
graceful  and  useful  structures. 

This  brings  us — for  why  should  we  stop  to  speak  of  the 
imbecile  protectorate  of  Richard,  or  the  deep  and  secret 
game  played  by  Monk,  that  led  the  way  with  such  caution 
to  a  new  state  of  things — this  brings  us  to  the  long  desired 
restoration. 

*  James  I.  reigned  from  A.  D.  1603  to  1G25  ;  Charles  I.,  his  successor,  occu- 
pied the  throne  from  1625  to  1649,  having  been  beheaded  ou  the  30th  of  Janu- 
ary of  tlie  last  named  year. 


EEVOLUTIONS   IN   ENGLAND.  203 

These  first  sixty  years  of  the  century  were  teeming  with 
events  of  the  most  momentous  consideration  in  their  bearing 
upon  the  future  destinies  of  mankind.  No  wonder,  that 
amid  such  convulsions  at  home,  revokitions  chasing  one  an- 
other as  wave  follows  wave  to  the  shore,  the  English  govern- 
ment should  have  lost  sight  of  that  handful  of  men  who,  year 
after  year,  under  the  shade  of  the  mighty  forest  trees,  stole 
away  from  the  provincial  government  at  Boston,  and  set  up 
a  new  jurisdiction  for  themselves  on  the  Connecticut  river 
and  along  the  sea-shore,  as  well  of  Long  Island  as  of  the 
main-land.  Nor  is  it  a  thing  to  excite  our  surprise,  that  the 
planters  of  Connecticut,  who  sometimes  turned  their  eyes 
from  their  absorbing  employments— the  taming  of  wild  na- 
ture or  wilder  men — to  steal  a  hurried  glance  at  the  dusty 
arena  where  England  struggled  for  the  freedom  that  she 
finally  won,  should  have  come  at  last  almost  to  forget  their 
allegiance  to  the  mother  country,  and  should  have  half  im- 
agined that  in  the  recesses  of  their  retirement  they  were  be- 
yond the  ken  of  British  statesmanship  and  out  of  the  pale 
of  British  authority. 

It  is  not  likely  that  the  framers  of  the  constitution  of  1639 
ever  entertained  the  idea  of  maintaining  a  government  inde- 
pendent of  the  crown,  although  they  did  not  think  it  neces- 
sary or  expedient  to  take  upon  them.selves  the  voluntary  ac- 
knowledgment of  a  jurisdiction  that  was  sure  to  thrust  itself 
upon  them  as  soon  as  they  could  desire  to  bear  its  burdens. 
It  is  possible,  too,  that  they  kept  themselves  in  abeyance  for 
the  time  when  England,  bowed  down  by  her  calamities, 
could  no  longer  stretch  her  shortened  sceptre  across  three 
thousand  miles  of  ocean. 

Let  these  planters  have  reasoned  as  they  might,  the  restor- 
ation of  1660,  which  brought  tranquillity  to  England  and  en- 
abled the  king  to  look  abroad  upon  the  outer  borders  of  his 
empire,  soon  taught  them  to  reflect  upon  the  growing  impor- 
tance of  Connecticut,  which  could  not  fail  to  tempt  the  cu- 
pidity of  a  monarch  whose  extravagant  habits  and  empty 
exchequer  called  loudly  for  subsidies.     Besides,  they  were  in 


204  HISTORY   OF   CONNECTICUT. 

the  midst  of  dangers :  the  Dutch  on  one  side,  the  Indians 
on  the  other,  and  the  powerful  colony  of  Massachusetts  not 
far  off,  of  whose  growing  importance  they  had  always  enter- 
tained such  suspicions  as  weak  states  must  invariably  harbor 
against  those  that  are  more  powerful.  The  king  had  suffer- 
ed all  the  hardships  of  proscription  and  exile,  and  was  now, 
at  the  commencement  of  his  reign,  most  anxious  to  please  all 
classes  of  his  subjects.  He  was  a  Stuart,  and  with  increas- 
ing prosperity  his  love  of  prerogative,  the  ruling  passion  of 
his  father  and  grandfather,  might  grow  upon  him  and  tempt 
him  to  trench  upon  their  liberties.  What  time  so  favorable 
as  the  present  ? 

Accordingly  on  the  14th  of  March  1661,  while  the  good- 
natured  king  yet  bore  his  honors  with  a  modest  face,  the 
General  Court  of  Connecticut  determined  to  make  a  formal 
avowal  of  their  allegiance  to  the  crown,  and  apply  for  a  char- 
ter. A  very  humble  and  graceful  acknowledgment  they 
made  of  it.  They  now  very  sedulously  called  the  common- 
wealth that  they  represented,  a  colony,  and  avowed  that  all 
its  inhabitants  were  the  king's  faithful  subjects.  The  court 
also  made  an  appropriation  of  five  hundred  pounds  to  prose- 
cute the  petition  with  energy.* 

In  May  the  Court  again  met,  when  a  petition  to  his  most 
gracious  majesty  was  presented  by  governor  Winthrop  for 
their  consideration,  and  was  cordially  approved.  But  in 
order  that  no  form  of  respect  might  be  wanting,  and  no  rea- 
son that  could  be  assigned  might  be  left  out  of  the  paper,  or 
fail  to  have  its  proper  weight  from  being  imperfectly  stated, 
the  deputy  governor,  Mr.  Wyllys,  Mr.  Allyn,  Mr.  Wareham, 
Mr.  Stone,  Mr.  Hooker,  Mr.  Whiting,  and  the  Secretary, 
were  associated  with  the  governor  as  a  committee  to  amend 
and  still  further  perfect  it.  These  gentlemen  were  also  au- 
thorized to  write  letters  to  such  noblemen  and  other  eminent 
persons  as  they  should  see  fit,  with  the  design  of  procuring 
aid  in  bringing  the  application   to   a  favorable   issue.     The 

*  Colonial  Records,  i.  361. 


[1661]  APPLICATION   FOR   THE   CHARTER.  205 

Court  appointed  governor  Winthrop  the  agent  of  the  colony, 
to  repair  to  England  and  present  the  petition  to  the  king, 
and  to  see  after  the  general  interests  of  Connecticut.  He  was 
particularly  instructed  how  to  proceed  in  the  business,  and 
was  especially  directed  to  procure,  if  possible,  the  aid  of 
Lord  Say  and  Seal,  and  the  other  still  surviving  proprietors 
under  the  old  patent.* 

With  such  a  committee  and  such  a  maji  as  Winthrop  at 
its  head,  it  is  not  surprising  that  a  very  strong  case  was  made 
out,  and  stated  in  the  petition  with  uncommon  ability.  How 
the  lands  had  been  purchased  of  the  Indians  at  infinite  labor 
and  cost,  or  won  from  them  as  the  prize  of  victories  gained 
by  the  colonists  at  the  hazard  of  their  lives,  and  how  they 
had  subdivided  the  territory  thus  obtained  and  reduced  it 
to  a  state  of  culture  that  made  it,  with  the  increased  popula- 
tion that  then  inhabited  it,  a  most  valuable  addition  to  the 
resources  of  the  king's  empire,  were  all  stated  with  such  full- 
ness and  force  that  they  could  not  fail  to  attract  the  royal 
notice,  seasoned  as  they  were  with  the  insinuating  language 
of  homage  and  flattery. 

At  the  same  time  a  letter  was  written  to  Lord  Say  and 
Seal,  who,  notwithstanding  his  dislike  of  Charles  L  and 
Cromwell,  had  become  reconciled  to  Charles  IL  and  was 
known  to  possess  the  king's  confidence,  reminding  his  lord- 
ship, by  an  indirect  allusion,  of  the  project  that  he  had  him- 
self once  entertained  of  emigrating  to  America,  and  of  the 
influence  that  he  had  exerted  upon  the  colonists,  in  holding 
out  such  inducements  as  his  presence  and  patronage  would 
be  to  them,  to  remove  thither  to  prepare  the  way  for  his 
coming.  They  further  informed  him  at  what  a  dear  rate 
they  had  purchased  of  Colonel  Fenwick  the  fort  and  lands 
that  he  had  sold  to  them  under  a  threat  that,  if  they  refused 
to  buy  upon  his  own  terms,  he  would  transfer  his  title  to  the 
Dutch ;  and  that  they  paid  the  exorbitant  price  of  sixteen 
hundred  pounds  for  what  they  thus  bought,  because  they 
were  under  such  restraints  as  placed  it  out  of  their  power 
*  Colonial  Records,  i.  368,  369. 


206  HISTORY   OF  CONNECTICUT. 

to  make  the  contract  upon  any  terms  that  were  more  favor- 
able. They  called  to  the  mind  of  his  lordship  their  weak- 
ness and  their  exposed  situation,  with  the  powerful  and  grasp- 
ing colony  of  Massachusetts  on  their  northern  border,  and 
how  impossible  it  was  for  Connecticut  to  settle  her  boundary 
lines  either  upon  the  north  or  upon  the  west  without  the  lim- 
itations and  authority  of  a  charter.  They  begged  him  to  as- 
sist governor  Winthrop  in  the  enterprise  that  they  had  so 
much  at  heart.* 

Thus  commissioned  and  instructed,  the  agent  of  the  col- 
ony set  sail  in  August  for  England,  to  execute  the  important 
trust  that  had  been  confided  to  him.  When  he  arrived  in 
England,  he  made  immediate  application  to  Lord  Say  and 
Seal  to  aid  him  in  gaining  a  favorable  hearing  of  the  king. 
That  venerable  nobleman  was  at  that  time  unable  to  go  up  to 
London  on  account  of  a  severe  attack  of  the  gout,  that  prostra- 
ted his  powers  and  unfitted  him  to  attend  to  his  duties  at  court. 
Yet,  true  as  he  ever  had  been  to  his  old  friends  in  Connecti- 
cut, for  whom  he  always  manifested  the  highest  regard,  not 
more  on  account  of  their  religious  sentiments  than  because 
he  was  himself  at  heart  a  republican,  he  wrote  an  urgent  let- 
ter to  the  earl  of  Manchester,  then  Lord  Chamberlain,  the 
most  spotless  character  of  that  corrupt  age,  whose  sympa- 
thies for  the  people  of  New  England  corresponded  with  his 
own,  desiring  him  to  lend  his  powerful  influence  to  the  ap- 
plication. Lord  Say  and  Seal  was  the  only  nobleman  then 
surviving  who  had  been  a  grantee  in  the  original  patent. 
His  letter  to  Winthrop,  bearing  date  December  11,  1661, 
evinces  the  kindest  and  most  delicate  interest  in  the  welfare 
of  the  colony. t 

Say  and  Seal  had  kept  aloof  from  public  life  during  the 
protectorate,  which  he  abhorred  more  than  he  shrunk  from 
the  tyranny  of  Charles  I.,  and  had  remained  for  a  long  time 
in  haughty  retirement  at  the  isle  of  Lundy,  where  he  lived 
more  in  the  style  of  a  king  than  of  a  subject.     But  he  became 

*  For  a  copy  of  this  letter  see  Trumbull,  i.  513,  514. 
t  This  letter  may  be  found  in  Trumbull,  i.  515. 


[1G61.]  LOED   SAY  AND   SEAL   AND   WINTHROP.  207 

at  last  tired  of  his  magnificent  obscurity  and,  like  many- 
others  who  had  struggled  to  free  England  from  a  galling 
yoke,  had  becorpe  sated  with  the  horrors  of  war,  and  weary 
of  the  delays,  the  inefficiency  and  the  bigotry  of  the  parlia- 
ment. With  these  views  he  had  not  been  idle  in  lending  his 
powerful  aid  to  the  efforts  of  Monk  and  Clarendon,  in  bring- 
ing back  the  exiled  king.  Nor  was  Charles  unmindful  of  the 
part  that  his  noble  subject  had  taken  in  the  train  of  compli- 
cated circumstances  that  led  to  the  restoration.  He  reward- 
ed him  for  his  fidelity  by  making  him  Lord  privy  Seal.* 
The  interposition  of  such  an  ally  in  behalf  of  Connecticut, 
seconded  by  the  efforts  of  the  Lord  Chamberlain,  could  not 
fail  to  have  weight  with  the  easy,  vacillating  monarch,  who, 
in  his  best  estate,  though  obstinate,  had  never  possessed  an 
independent  will,  and  who  had  already  begun  to  commit  the 
care  of  his  kingdom  to  his  ministers,  while  he  yielded  him- 
self up  a  too  ready  victim  to  the  soft  dalliance  of  courtly 
pleasures. f  Connecticut  was  also  exceedingly  fortunate  in 
the  choice  of  her  agent.  Not  another  man  in  New  England 
was  so  well  fitted  as  Winthrop  to  bring  this  delicate  mission 
to  a  successful  result.  His  naturally  flexible  and  graceful 
mind  had  been  cultivated  by  a  careful  education  at  Cam- 
bridge and  Dublin,  and  his  manners,  in  addition  to  the  spark- 
ling endowments  of  nature,  had  been  fashioned  by  the  then 
rare  accomplishment  of  an  European  tour,  with  abundant 
leisure  to  observe  and  study  the  elegant  refinements  of  the 
higher  circles  in  the  various  countries  that  he  visited,  and 
with  the  noble  self-control  to  abstain  from  indulging  in  their 
vices.  J  Besides,  he  had  made  himself  familiar  with  the  new 
world  as  well  as  with  the  old.  Its  streams,  unfettered  by 
commerce,  save  that  of  the  canoe  with  its  light  freight  of 
skins,  winding  through  woods  that  had  already  become  the 
theme  of  many  an  enchanting  fable ;  the  habits  of  the  wild 
men  who  frequented  those  woods  ;  their  laws,  their  modes  of 
subsistence,  of  waging  war,  of  making  treaties,  and  their  in- 

*  Camden's  Imperial  Hist.  Eng.,  ii.  216  ;  Trumbull,  i.  248. 

t  See  Wade's  British  Chronology,  220,  221.         i  B  ran  croft ;  Allen. 


208  HISTORY  OF  CONNECTICUT. 

tercourse  with  the  English  ;  the  game  that  abounded  there  ; 
the  noisome  serpents  that  startled  the  traveler  from  his  lonely 
trail  with  hiss  or  rattle — all  afforded  an  inexhaustible  field 
whence  an  ingenious  mind  could  extract,  in  details  of  anec- 
dote and  adventure,  the  honey  of  discourse  ;  and  who  was 
more  likely  to  listen  with  a  pleased  ear  to  the  agreeable  nar- 
rator of  such  wonders,  than  the  boyish,  fun-loving  king  ?  who 
more  likely  than  Winthrop  to  cause  the  full,  flashing  eye  of 
Charles  Stuart  to  dance  with  merriment  second  only  to  that 
which  flowed  from  the  exhilaration  of  the  wine-cup,  or  cause 
it  to  dilate  sometimes  with  a  pleased  sympathy  such  as  could 
merge  for  a  moment  the  ambition  of  mistress  Palmer  in  a 
softer  passion,  or  tame  to  a  feebler  fluttering  the  gentle  heart 
of  Nelly  G Wynne.* 

An  English  gentleman, -however  accomplished,  who  had 
lacked  the  interesting  experience  that  afforded  Winthrop  the 
opportunity  to  excite  the  curiosity  and  play  upon  the  imag- 
ination of  his  sovereign,  might  have  failed,  as  a  man  of  unre- 
fined manners,  however  well  his  memory  might  have  been 
stored  with  facts  relating  to  American  life,  certainly  would 
have  done ;  for  the  monarch  had  inherited  not  a  little  of  his 
father's  iastidious  refinement,  though  it  was  gradually  soiled 
and  finally  lost  in  the  debaucheries  of  a  later  day. 

With  all  these  happy  advantages,  Winthrop  might  perhaps 
have  failed  in  accomplishing  his  purpose  but  for  a  simple  ap- 
peal to  the  filial  piety  of  the  king.  He  had  in  his  keeping  a 
ring  of  rare  value,  that  had  been  presented  to  his  grandmother 
by  the  unhappy  Charles  I.  This  ring,  as  if  to  set  the  seal 
to  the  favorable  impression  that  he  had  made,  he  humbly 
proffered  to  his  royal  master.  The  king's  heart  melted  at 
the  sight  of  this  touching  memoriaMhat  brought  to  his  mind  the 
dark  hours  and  sorrowful  fate  of  the  noble  donor,  who  had 
most  need  of  such  a  loyality  as  that  gift  betokened.  With  a 
gracefulness    that    rendered    his    munificence    doubly   wel- 

*  The  influence  of  these  artful  courtesans  over  the  opinions  and  acts  of  Charles  II. 
was  often  observable  in  public  affairs.  See  Camden's  Imperial  Hist,  of  England, 
ii.  221  ;  Wade,  229. 


[1662.]  THE  PATENTEES  AND  THE  PATENT.  209 

come,  he  accepted  the  ring  and  granted  the  prayer  of  the 
colony.* 

On  the  23d  of  April,  1662,  letters  patent  under  the  great 
seal  received  the  royal  signature,  giving  to  the  petitioners 
the  most  ample  privileges. f  They  confirmed  in  the  patentees 
the  title  and  jurisdiction  of  the  whole  tract  of  land  granted 
to  the  earl  of  Warwick  in  free  and  common  socage,  and  to 
their  successors,  forever.  The  names  of  the  patentees  in  the 
charter  were  John  Winthrop,  John  Mason,  Samuel  Wyllys, 
Henry  Clarke,  Mathew  Allen,  John  Tapping,  Nathan  Gold, 
Richard  Treat,  Richard  Lord,  Henry  Wolcott,  John  Talcott, 
Daniel  Clarke,  John  Ogden,  Thomas  Wells,  Obadiah  Bruen, 
John  Clarke,  Anthony  Hawkins,  John  Deming,  and  Matthew 
Canfield— nineteen  in  all — to  whom,  together  with  all  the 
other  freemen  of  Connecticut  then  existing,  and  who  might 
afterwards  be  admitted  electors  or  freemen  to  the  end  of  time, 
were  given  the  irrevocable  privileges  of  being  "one  body 
corporate  and  politic  in  fact  and  name,  by  the  name  of  the 
governor  and  company  of  the  English  colony  of  Connecticut 
in  New  England  in  America,  and  that  by  the  same  name 
they  and  their  successors  should  have  perpetual  succession." 

By  these  letters  patent  they  are  made  persons  in  law,  may 
plead  and  be  impleaded,  defend  and  be  defended,  in  all  suits 
whatsoever ;  may  purchase,  possess,  lease,  grant,  demise  and 
sell,  lands,  tenements,  and  goods  in  the  same  unrestricted 
manner  as  any  of  the  king's  subjects  or  corporations  in  Eng- 
land. They  are  annually  to  hold  two  general  assemblies — 
one  on  the  second  Thursday  in  May,  and  the  other  on  the 
second  Thursday  in  October — to  consist  of  the  governor, 
deputy  governor,  and  twelve  assistants,  with  the  more  popu- 
lar element  of  two  deputies  from  every  town  or  city. 

The  company  or  colonial  corporation  thus  constituted, 
might  choose  a  common  seal,  establish  courts  for  the  admin- 
istering of  justice,  make  freemen,  appoint  officers,  enact  laws, 
impose  fines,  assemble  the  inhabitants  in  martial  array  for  the 
common  defence,  and  exercise  martial  law  in  all  necessary 

*  Trumbull,  i.  248.     t  A  copy  of  the  charter  is  to  be  found  in  the  appendix  (B.) 

14 


210  HISTORY  OF   CONNECTICUT. 

emergencies.  It  is  especially  provided  that  all  the  subjects 
of  the  king  within  the  colony  shall  enjoy  all  the  privileges  of 
free  and  natural  subjects  of  the  realm  of  England,  and  that 
the  charter  shall  be  construed  most  favorably  for  the  benefit 
of  the  corporation.  John  Winthrop  is  named  in  it  as  the 
first  governor,  and  John  Mason  deputy  governor,  and  the 
other  patentees  whose  names  are  mentioned  are  to  be  the 
first  magistrates.  All  these  appointees  are  to  hold  their 
offices  until  the  people  shall  elect  new  ones  in  their  places. 

Such,  in  its  substance  and  main  features,  was  the  charter 
granted  by  Charles  II.  to  the  colony  of  Connecticut.  Al- 
though it  bore  date  the  23d  of  April,  yet  as  nothing  was 
known  of  it  in  Connecticut  until  several  months  afterwards, 
the  regular  routine  of  the  government  meanwhile  went  on 
under  the  old  constitution.  In  May,  the  freemen  met  as 
usual,  and  held  their  election.  Although  the  deepest  anxiety 
must  have  pervaded  the  public  mind  in  reference  to  the 
probable  fate  of  Winthrop's  mission,  yet  we  find  no  traces 
of  it  upon  our  colonial  records.  The  Court  proceeds  with 
its  usual  calmness  and  sobriety  to  provide  for  the  domestic 
economy  of  the  inhabitants,  and  to  relieve  the  burdens  that 
appeared  to  fall  too  heavily  upon  the  weaker  towns. 

The  defenses  of  the  colony  were  not  forgotten,  and  efiect- 
ual  measures  were  taken  to  perfect  its  military  organization. 
The  distribution  of  the  Bible  among  widows  and  children 
was  at  the  same  session  made  the  subject  of  legislation.* 

At  the  General  Court  held  on  the  22d  of  July,  the  same 
silence  is  observed  as  to  the  petition.  The  king  is  not  even 
incidentally  mentioned.  The  people  never  made  any  con- 
fessions of  loyality  unless  they  considei'ed  themselves  likely 
to  reap  some  benefit  from  the  humiliation. 


*  On  page  381  of  J.  II.  Trumbull's  Colonial  Records  will  be  found  an  order 
of  the  General  Court  directing  that  the  Bible  sent  to  Goodwife  Williams  shall  be 
delivered  to  Goodwife  Harrison,  "  who  cngageth  to  this  Court  to  give  unto  ye 
children  of  ye  said  Williams  a  bushel  of  wheat  apiece  as  they  shall  come  out  of 
their  time ;  and  John  Not  doth  engage  to  give  each  of  ye  children  two  shillings  a 
piece  as  they  come  out  of  their  time,  to  buy  them  Bibles." 


[1662.]  ARRIVAL   OF  THE   CHARTER.  211 

At  what  precise  time  the  charter  arrived  in  Connecticut  is 
not  known.  Doubtless  it  must  have  been  early  in  Septem- 
ber, as  it  appears  that  it  was  publicly  shown  to  the  New 
England  Congress  convened  at  Boston,  on  the  4th  of  Sep- 
tember.*' 

The  commissioners  must  have  opened  their  eyes  wide 
when  "his  majesty's  letters  patent  under  the  broad  seal  of 
England  were  presented  and  read." 

On  the  9th  day  of  October,  it  was  publicly  read  to  the  as- 
sembled freemen  of  Connecticut,  and  was  declared  to  belong 
to  them  and  their  successors.  The  freemen  immediately 
bore  testimony  of  their  gratitude  to  the  king  for  this  mark 
of  his  favor,  and  to  the  value  that  they  placed  upon  it,  by 
appointing  Mr.  Wyllys,  Captain  Talcott  and  Lieutenant 
Allen  a  committee  to  take  it  into  their  custody,  under  the 
solemnities  of  an  oath  administered  to  them  by  the  General 
Assembly,  binding  them  faithfully  to  keep  this  palladium  of 
the  rights  of  the  people.  At  this  session,  the  General  As- 
sembly confirmed  the  old  tenures  of  office  and  ratified  all  the 
laws  of  the  colony  that  were  not  inconsistent  with  the 
charter,  f 

At  the  same  session,  also,  the  General  Assembly  began  to 
show  a  bolder  front  than  ever  before,  in  asserting  the  claims 
of  Connecticut  to  jurisdiction  over  territories  before  that 
time  claimed  by  other  colonies.  Notice  was  given  to  the 
inhabitants  of  Westchester  that  they  were  embraced  within 
the  boundaries  of  Connecticut,  and  that  they  would  be  ex- 
pected to  conduct  themselves  as  peaceable  subjects.  It  was 
also  resolved,  that  the  people  of  Mistick  and  Pawcatuck 
should  abstain  from  the  exercise  of  all  authority  by  virtue  of 
any  commission  from  any  other  colony,  and  that  they  should 
manage  their  affairs  and  elect  their  town  officers  in  accord- 
ance with  the  laws  of  Connecticut. 

The  news  that  the  charter  had  arrived,  and  the  very  lib- 
eral terms  of  it,  flew  upon  the  wings  of  the  wind.  As  Win- 
throp  probably  anticipated,  it  gave  much  additional  impor- 

*  See  J.  H.  Trumbull,  i.  384.  (note.)         t  Colonial  Records,  i.  384,  385. 


212  HISTORY  OF  CONNECTICUT. 

tance  to  Connecticut.  Here  was  an  invaluable,  sacred  grant, 
defining  the  rights  of  the  colony  and  placing  them  beyond 
the  grasp  of  the  royal  prerogative.  The  people  of  Connecti- 
cut, whatever  might  be  the  fate  of  the  other  colonies,  had  the 
king's  written  pledge,  under  the  broad  seal  of  England,  to 
vouch  for  them  that  they  were  entitled  to  all  the  rights  and 
immunities  of  Englishmen.  One  after  another,  deputations 
from  the  remote  border  towns,  upon  Long  Island  and  upon 
the  main-land,  came  flocking  to  Hartford  to  tender  their  per- 
sons and  property  to  the  General  Assembly,  and  praying  to 
be  admitted  upon  equal  terms  of  citizenship.  Whether  these 
ambassadors  represented  the  whole  population  of  their  respec- 
tive towns,  or  only  petitioned  in  behalf  of  themselves,  they 
were  graciously  received.  A  large  portion  of  the  inhabitants 
of  Stamford  and  Greenwich  begged  to  be  made  participators 
of  the  privileges  conferred  by  the  charter.  A  majority  of  the 
people  of  Southold,  and  some  of  the  principal  men  of  Guil- 
ford, were  among  the  applicants.  The  clemency  and  gen- 
erosity of  the  king  were  upon  every  tongue  in  the  colony. 
All  the  towns  upon  Long  Island  were  compelled  to  submit. 
A  Court  was  instituted  at  Southold,  at  which  the  magistrates 
of  South  and  East  Hampton  were  members.*  Of  course 
the  territory  embraced  in  the  charter  included  the  entire  col- 
ony of  New  Haven.  Accordingly  a  committee  was  sent  to 
New  Haven  to  treat  with  the  government  there  for  an  ami- 
cable union.  Matthew  Allyn,  Samuel  Wyllys,  Stone,  the 
chaplain  of  the  Pequot  expedition,  and  the  renowned  Thomas 
Hooker,  were  the  gentlemen  selected  for  this  important  and 
delicate  embassy. f 

The  committee  repaired  to  New  Haven  with  becoming  dis- 
patch, and  held  a  long  and  earnest  conference  with  the  author- 
ities and  principal  gentlemen  there.  They  urged  a  friendly 
union  under  the  patent  on  some  fair  terms.  It  was  too 
mighty  a  matter  to  be  disposed  of  at  a  single  interview,  and 
besides  it  was  thought  necessary  that  the  proposition  should 
be  communicated  to  the  freemen  before  any  ultimate  action 


*  Thompson's  Ilist.  Long  Island.         +  Colonial  Records,  i.  388. 


[1662.]  DIFFICULTIES  WITH  NEW  HAVEN.  213 

was  taken.  The  committee  therefore  presented  the  authori- 
ties of  New  Haven  with  a  copy  of  the  charter,  accompanied 
by  a  very  plausible  and  somewhat  stately  declaration,  where- 
in they  were  careful  to  speak  in  terms  of  the  greatest  com- 
mendation of  the  privileges  granted  by  the  "  large  and  ample 
patent,"  which  they  describe  not  as  having  been  artfully  pro- 
cured by  the  colony  of  Connecticut,  but  as  having  come  to 
their  hand.  The  declaration  informs  New  Haven  that  the 
king  has  united  the  two  colonies  into  one  body  politic,  and 
reminds  the  freemen  to  whom  it  is  made,  that  they  are 
equally  interested  with  the  people  of  Connecticut  in  all  the 
provisions  of  the  royal  patent,  inviting  them  to  a  happy  and 
peaceable  union — "  that  inconveniences  and  dangers  may  be 
prevented,  peace  and  truth  strengthened  and  established, 
through  our  suitable  subjection  to  the  terms  of  the  patent, 
and  the  blessing  of  God  upon  us  therein." 

This  paper  I  suppose  to  be  the  composition  of  Hooker. 
The  conciliatory,  half-reproachful  reply  I  have  no  doubt  was 
framed  by  Leete,  whose  gentle  nature  never  showed  the  de- 
cision and  strength  that  lay  hidden  beneath  its  surface  until 
all  persuasive  measures  were  exhausted.* 

The  time  had  now  arrived  when  the  freemen  of  New  Ha- 
ven were  called  upon  to  arouse  themselves.  On  the  4th  of 
November  they  convened  to  consult  upon  the  best  measures 
to  be  adopted.  Excited  and  indignant  as  they  were,  they 
manifested  a  calm  dignity  that  was  never  exhibited,  I  pre- 

*  The  reply  of  the  authorities  of  New  Haven  was  as  follows :  "  "We  have  re- 
ceived and  perused  your  writings,  and  heard  the  copy  read  of  his  majesty's  let- 
ters patent  to  Connecticut  colony  ;  wherein,  though  we  do  not  find  the  colony  of 
New  Haven  expressly  included,  yet  to  show  our  desire  that  matters  may  be  issued 
in  the  conserving  of  peace  and  amity,  with  righteousness  between  them  and  us,  we 
shall  communicate  your  writing,  and  a  copy  of  the  patent,  to  our  freemen,  and 
afterwards,  with  convenient  speed,  return  their  answer.  Only  we  desire,  that  the 
issuing  of  matters  may  be  respited,  until  we  may  receive  fuller  information  from 
Mr.  Winthrop,  or  satisfaction  otherwise ;  and  that  in  the  meantime,  this  colony 
may  remain  distinct,  entire,  and  uninterrupted,  as  heretofore ;  which  we  hope 
you  will  see  cause  lovingly  to  consent  unto  ;  and  signify  the  same  to  us  with  con- 
venient speed." 


214  HISTORY   OF  CONNECTICUT. 

sume,  under  like  circumstances  in  any  State  of  ancient 
Greece.  Governor  Leete  produced  the  declaration  of  the 
Connecticut  committee  and  the  copy  of  the  charter  that  they 
had  left.  The  strange  patent,  that  had  thus  suddenly  dis- 
posed of  their  government  and  political  existence,  without 
giving  them  a  premonition  of  the  fate  that  awaited  them,  was 
read  aloud  in  the  hearing  of  the  freemen ;  and  then,  to  allow 
them  time  for  consideration,  the  Court  took  a  recess  for  an 
hour  and  a  half  to  meet  again  at  the  beat  of  the  drum. 

At  the  sound  of  this  primitive  summons,  the  Court  again 
assembled.  Davenport — the  venerable  father  of  the  colony 
that  had  been  thus  summarily  passed  over  into  other  hands — 
Davenport,  the  man  who  was  second  to  no  other  in  New 
England  for  straight-froward  honesty  and  moral  courage — 
was  the  first  to  break  the  ominous  silence.  He  rose  up 
calmly,  as  his  custom  was,  and  though  grown  gray  in  the 
hard  services  of  his  calling,  and  bowed  under  the  weight  of 
recent  bereavements,  neither  his  hand  nor  his  voice  could 
have  betrayed  a  sign  of  weakness,  when  he  unfolded  the  pa- 
per containing  his  carefully  written  views  and  reasons  upon 
this  vital  matter,  and  prefaced  his  reading  with  the  charac- 
teristic remark,  that  "  according  to  the  occasion  he  would 
discharge  the  duty  of  his  place."  He  did  nobly  discharge 
that  duty.  In  his  distinct  and  impressive  way,  he  read  to 
them  "  his  own  thoughts  which  he  had  set  down  in  writing, 
and  which  he  said  he  desired  should  remain  his  own  until 
his  hearers  should  be  fully  satisfied  with  them." 

When  he  had  read  the  paper,  he  committed  it  to  the  keep- 
ing of  the  assembly  and  retired.  Governor  Leete  prudently 
forbore  to  participate  in  the  discussion.  The  debate  was 
long  and  earnest,  and  after  it  was  ended  it  was  agreed  that 
a  committee  made  up  of  Mr.  L^aw  of  Stamford,  and  the  mag- 
istrates and  elders,  should  draw  up  an  answer  to  the  declar- 
ation of  Connecticut,  tliat  was  to  embrace  and  enlarge  upon 
the  following  distinct  propositions  : 

I.  The  wrong  and  sin  of  Connecticut  in  thus  attempting 
to  rob  them  of  their  independence  and  colonial  existence. 


[1662.]  EEMONSTEANCE   OF  DAVENPORT.  215 

II.  The  propriety  of  suspending  all  further  proceedings 
until  Mr.  Winthrop  should  return,  or  until  they  should  other- 
wise obtain  further  information  and  satisfaction. 

III.  That  New  Haven  could  of  right  do  nothing  without 
first  consulting  the  other  confederated  colonies.* 

The  committee  was  directed  to  present  in  their  answer 
whatever  arguments  they  could  against  the  union,  and  if 
these  should  fail  to  bring  about  the  intended  result,  they  were 
ordered  to  prepare  an  address  to  the  king,  praying  for  relief. 
The  document  drawn  up  by  this  committee  in  obedience  to 
the  instructions  of  the  freemen  of  New  Haven,  has  such 
salient  points  and  such  a  marked  individuality,  that  no  one 
can  doubt  that  Davenport  was  the  author  of  it.f  There  is  a 
concealed  and  galling  irony  in  the  document  that  must  have 
been  intolerably  provoking,  while  the  facts  as  well  as  tire 
deductions  from  them,  are  indeed  unanswerable.  The  com- 
mittee say  in  substance,  that  whatever  may  be  the  purport 
of  the  charter,  they  have  looked  in  vain  to  find  in  it  any 
clause  that  prohibits  the  continuance  of  a  distinct  colonial 
government  on  the  part  of  New  Haven.  The  fact  that  not 
one  of  the  patentees  named  in  it  belonged  to  New  Haven, 
was  to  their  minds  strong  corroborative  evidence  that  neither 
they  who  petitioned  for  the  patent,  nor  his  majesty  who 
granted  it,  intended  that  she  should  be  embraced  in  it  or  af- 
fected by  it,  and  that  for  aught  that  appeared  in  the  charter 
they  were  still  left  at  liberty  to  petition  for  the  same  privi- 
lieges  that  had  been  so  recently  bestowed  upon  Connecticut. 
"  Yet,"  say  the  committee,  "  if  it  shall  appear  (after  due  and 

*  The  words  of  the  reply  are  not  here  given  literally,  but  only  in  substance  as 
found  upon  the  New  Haven  Colonial  Records. 

t  Davenport  was  remarkable  in  that  age  of  verbiage,  for  his  terse,  direct  man- 
ner of  expressing  his  thoughts  in  writing.  There  is  a  manliness  and  patrician 
bearing  in  this  comprehensive  state  paper,  that  stamps  its  authorship  upon  it  as 
with  a  seal.  Whoever  supposes  that  John  Davenport  can  be  set  lightly  aside  by 
the  flippant  charge  of  narrow-mindedness  and  bigotry,  had  better  study  the  his- 
tory of  those  times  more  faithfully,  before  he  presumes  to  put  his  crude  views  up- 
on paper.  There  was  indeed  a  mote  in  the  eye  of  the  old  pioneer  clergj'man,  but 
alas !  for  the  beam  in  that  of  the  critic. 


216  HISTORY  OF  CONNECTICUT. 

full  information  of  our  State,)  to  have  been  his  majesty's 
pleasure  so  to  unite  us  as  you  understand  the  patent,  we 
must  submit  according  to  God."  The  solemn  covenants  en- 
tered into  under  the  confederation  are  then  again  alluded  to, 
and  the  request  urgently  made,  that  New  Haven  may  go  on 
discharging  the  functions  of  a  distinct  colonial  government, 
until  "  either  by  the  honored  Mr.  Winthrop,  by  the  other 
confederates,  or  from  his  majesty,"  they  may  learn  what 
construction  should  be  given  to  the  patent. 

The  implied  charge  of  a  breach  of  faith  contained  in  the 
following  language  is  exceedingly  severe.  "  This  occasion 
[is]  given  before  any  conviction  tendered  or  publication  of 
the  patent  among  us,  or  so  much  as  a  treaty  with  us  in  a 
christian,  neighborly  way.  No  pretense  for  our  dissolution  of 
government,  till  then,  could  rationally  be  imagined.  Such 
carriage  may  seem  to  be  against  the  advice  and  mind  of  his 
majesty  in  the  patent,  as  also  of  your  honored  governor,  and 
to  cast  reflection  upon  him." 

This  letter  bore  date  the  5th  of  November,  1662.  Con- 
necticut made  no  reply  to  it,  and  in  this  she  acted  wisely,  for 
no  human  ingenuity  could  have  framed  a  successful  answer 
to  its  stern  truthfulness. 

On  the  11th  of  March,  1663,  the  General  Assembly  met, 
and  in  a  very  pacific  tone  proceeded  to  appoint  a  committee 
to  treat  with  New  Haven  in  relation  to  the  terms  of  the 
union.  Deputy  governor  Mason  was  at  the  head  of  this 
committee.  They  proceeded  to  New  Haven  and  attempted 
to  hit  upon  some  amicable  mode  of  adjusting  the  difficulties. 
But  the  hot  haste  that  the  General  Assembly  had  manifested 
in  getting  possession  of  Southold,  Stamford  and  other  towns 
belonging  to  New  Haven,  and  establishing  a  government 
there,  and  the  protection  and  fellowship  that  had  been  promised 
by  Connecticut  to  the  disaffected  at  Guilford,  had  inflicted  a 
deep  wound  upon  the  colonial  independence  of  New  Haven, 
that  nothing  save  a  full  and  honorable  restitution  could  be 
expected  to  heal. 

In  this  crisis  of  affairs  governor  Leete  called  a  special  ses- 


[1663.]  NEW  HAVEN  STILL  RESISTS.  217 

sion  of  the  General  Court  to  commence  on  the  6th  of  May. 
When  the  freemen  were  convened,  they  were  asked  if  it 
was  their  pleasure,  on  account  of  relations  existing  between 
them  and  Connecticut,  to  make  any  alteration  in  respect  to 
the  time  or  manner  of  holding  their  election  ?  With  one 
consent  they  answered  "  No."  Had  the  negative  been  ut- 
tered by  the  lips  of  John  Davenport  himself,  it  could  not 
have  been  more  resolute.  They  further  resolved,  that  a  re- 
monstrance against  the  doings  of  the  encroaching  colony 
should  be  drawn  up  and  sent  to  the  General  Assembly  of 
Connecticut.  This  was  accordingly  done.  This  able  paper, 
reciting  the  causes  that  induced  the  people  of  the  colony  to 
establish  themselves  in  New  England,  and  also  giving  a  his- 
tory of  the  wrongs  that  they  had  recently  suffered  at  the 
hands  of  their  sister  colony,  protesting  against  those  wrongs, 
and  calling  for  redress,  is  also  the  composition  of  Davenport. 
It  contains  some  passages  of  powerful  and  eloquent  appeal, 
that  my  limits  will  not  allow  me  to  quote,  nor  indeed  ought 
they  to  be  presented  in  a  fragmentary  form. 

While  these  disorderly  proceedings  were  going  on  in 
America,  the  agent  of  New  Haven,  sent  to  his  majesty  to  peti- 
tion for  his  interference,  arrived  in  England.  Winthrop  was 
still  there,  and  when  the  state  of  things  in  the  two  colonies 
was  made  known  to  him,  he  undertook  to  be  the  surety  of 
Connecticut,  that  New  Haven  should  suffer  no  further  wrong 
at  her  hands,  and  that  if  the  union  was  to  take  place  at  all, 
it  should  be  a  voluntary  one.  In  pursuance  of  this  pledge, 
Winthrop,  on  the  3d  of  March,  1663,  wrote  a  letter  to  the 
deputy  governor  and  company  of  Connecticut,  informing 
them  of  the  purport  of  the  arrangement  that  he  had  made 
with  the  agent  of  New  Haven,  and  further  stating  that  be- 
fore he  prayed  out  the  charter,  he  had  given  the  people  of 
New  Haven  his  assurance  that  their  interests  should  in  no 
way  be  compromised  by  the  step  that  Connecticut  was  about 
to  take.  These  pledges  of  his,  made  while  he  was  acting  as 
their  agent,  and  in  a  manner  speaking  in  their  behalf,  he 
earnestly  begged  them  not  to  violate,  but  to  abstain  from  all 


218  HISTOEY   OF   CONNECTICUT. 

violence  and  from  all  encroachments  upon  the  rights  and 
territory  of  their  sister  colony.  He  dexterously  intimated 
that  the  blame  of  what  they  had  already  done,  was  to  be  im- 
puted rather  to  his  own  negligence  in  not  making  those  en- 
gagements known  to  them,  than  to  any  wanton  usurpation 
on  their  part.  He  added,  that  if  the  General  Assembly 
would  wait  until  his  return,  he  hoped  to  bring  about  the  de- 
sired union  by  some  amicable  adjustment.* 

What  strange  infatuation  had  taken  possession  of  Connec- 
ticut, I  am  unable  to  say.  The  General  Assembly  in  July 
following  laid  claim  to  Westchester,  and  sent  out  a  magis- 
trate from  Connecticut  with  authority  to  lead  the  voters  to  a 
choice  of  officers,  and  to  administer  the  proper  oaths  when 
chosen.  The  chartered  colony  also  stretched  out  her  hand 
over  the  Narragansett  country,  and  appointed  rulers  over  the 
inhabitants  of  Wickford.  Disregarding  the  wishes  of  the 
governor  thus  decidedly  expressed,  and  in  defiance  of  the  re- 
monstrance of  the  freemen  of  New  Haven  and  their  earnest 
appeal  to  the  king,  she  followed  up  the  contemplated  union 
in  the  same  hasty  way  in  which  it  had  been  begun. 

On  the  19th  of  August,  another  session  of  the  General  As- 
sembly was  summoned,  and  a  new  committee  appointed  to 
treat  not  alone  with  New  Haven,  but  also  with  Milford, 
Guilford,  and  Branford,  upon  the  terms  of  the  union.  If  the 
committee  failed  to  negotiate  the  matter  amicably,  they  were 
instructed  to  read  the  charter  publicly  at  New  Haven,  and 
proclaim  to  the  people  there  that  Connecticut  could  not  fail 
to  resent  their  attempts  to  maintain  a  separate  jurisdiction, 
as  it  was  clear  that  they  were  included  within  the  limits 
of  the  patent ;  and  that  the  General  Assembly  must 
insist  that  New  Haven,  Milford,  Guilford,  Branford 
and  Stamford  surrender  themselves  to  the  jurisdiction  of 
Connecticut.  This  committee,  like  the  preceding  one, 
effected  nothing. 

In  September,  the  Congress  met  at  Boston,  and  the  New 
Haven   commissioners   were    received    and    acknowledged 

*  Sco  Gov.  Winthrop's  letter  in  Trumbull,  i.  520,  521. 


[1663.]  WINTHROP,    LEETE,    AND   FENN.  219 

as  the  representatives  of  an  independent  colony.  At  this 
session  New  Haven  prepared  a  complaint  against  Connecti- 
cut, involving  a  complete  history  of  all  proceedings  under 
the  charter  that  related  to  New  Haven.  Governor  Winthrop, 
who  had  now  returned  from  England,  and  Mr.  John  Talcott, 
in  behalf  of  Connecticut,  defended  her  course  with  such  ar- 
guments as  they  could  adduce.  They  said  the  complainants 
had  no  just  grounds  of  accusation  against  the  chartered  col- 
ony, as  she  had  never  done  them  any  wrong,  and  had  always 
proposed  a  friendly  settlement  of  the  controversy  by  treaty. 

That  this  claim  of  Winthrop  was  at  war  with  the  matter 
contained  in  his  own  letter  of  the  3d  of  March,  and  not 
strictly  in  accordance  with  the  facts  in  the  case,  I  suppose 
nobody  would  attempt  at  this  day  to  deny.  However,  I  am 
unwilling  that  such  a  character  as  this  great  patriot  has 
transmitted  to  posterity,  should  be  thought  to  have  left  upon 
its  surface  a  stain  of  dissimulation.  He  was  anxious  to  con- 
ciliate the  applicants,  and  in  attempting  to  persuade  them 
that  they  were  unreasonable  in  their  complaints,  he  only  em- 
ployed the  ordinary  privileges  of  the  advocate,  and  stated  the 
views  that  his  too  partial  mind  had  adopted,  with  such  elo- 
quence and  force  as  was  natural  to  him.  Besides,  he  may 
have  arrived  at  different  conclusions,  on  finding  himself  in 
the  neighborhood  of  the  excited  people  whom  it  was  his  duty, 
as  far  as  he  rightfully  could,  to  justify  and  defend  in  the  face 
of  the  whole  world,  from  those  that  had  been  the  basis  of  the 
letter  that  he  had  written  from  England,  and  of  the  assur- 
ances that  he  had  then  given  to  the  agent  of  New  Haven. 

The  debate  was  very  earnest  and  absorbing.  Governor 
Leete  and  Benjamin  Fenn — the  one  cautious  and  courtly, 
the  other  blunt  and  bold — resolutely  met  the  arguments  of 
the  Connecticut  commissioners,  and  did  not  find  it  a  difficult 
task  to  procure  a  decree  that  the  distinct  colonial  existence 
of  New  Haven  should  remain  inviolate,  that  no  encroach- 
ments should  be  made  upon  her  jurisdiction,  and  that  her 
power  should  continue  entire,  as  one  of  the  confederates, 
"  until  such  time  as  in  an  orderly  way  it  shall  be  otherwise 


220  HISTORY  OF   CONNECTICUT. 

disposed  of."  No  other  decision  could  have  been  antici- 
pated from  the  Congress,  for  the  jealousy  of  Massachusetts 
and  of  the  other  associated  colonies  against  Connecticut, 
since  it  had  first  been  made  known  that  she  had  become  in- 
vested with  privileges  unknown  to  themselves,  knew  no 
bounds.  Aside  from  the  just  claims  of  New  Haven,  how 
was  it  to  be  borne  by  the  metropolitan  colony  of  Massachu- 
setts, who  had  always  patronized  Connecticut  as  her  younger 
and  portionless  sister,  that  she  should  presume  all  at  once  to 
give  herself  such  matronly  airs,  and  place  herself  upon  a  royal 
matrimonial  alliance  that  afforded  such  a  striking  contrast  to 
her  Arcadian  manners  and  humble  childhood  ? 

Governor  Stuyvesant,  likewise  indignant  at  the  grasping 
ambition  of  Connecticut  evinced  by  extending  her  jurisdic- 
tion over  Westchester  and  the  towns  adjacent,  appeared  at 
Boston  and  complained  of  the  encroachments  made  by  her 
upon  his  territories.  Winthrop  and  Talcott  begged  that,  as 
no  demand  had  been  made  upon  the  General  Assembly  and 
consequently  they  were  not  instructed  how  to  make  answer 
to  his  complaint,  that  the  consideration  of  the  affair  might  be 
postponed  until  the  next  meeting  of  the  Congress.  The  mat- 
ter was  accordingly  deferred. 

On  the  8th  of  October,  the  General  Assembly  of  Connecti- 
cut again  convened  to  consider  and  discuss  the  difficulties 
that  were  impending.  An  act  was  passed,  wherein  the  as- 
sembly declare  their  dissatisfaction  with  the  plantations  of 
New  Haven,  Milford,  Guilford,  Stamford  and  Branford,  be- 
cause they  persist  in  maintaining  a  government  distinct 
from  that  authorized  by  the  charter.  A  committee  was  at  the 
same  session  again  appointed  to  treat  with  those  towns,  and 
debate  the  matters  in  dispute.  "  If,"  say  the  assembly,  "  they 
can  rationally  make  it  appear  that  they  have  such  power,  and 
that  we  have  wronged  them  according  to  their  complaints, 
we  shall  be  ready  to  attend  them  with  due  satisfaction."* 

It  will  be  observed  that  this  diplomatic  piece  of  legislation 
is  very  far  from  recognizing  even  pretended  jurisdiction  on 

*  Colonial  Records,  i.  415. 


[1663.]  GENERAL   COURT  OF  NEW  HAVEN.  221 

the  part  of  New  Haven,  as  a  separate  colony.  On  the  other 
hand,  the  plantations  are  individually  spoken  of,  and  severally 
treated  as  independent  of  each  other,  and  as  constituting  in- 
tegral portions  of  Connecticut  under  the  charter. 

At  a  special  session  in  March,  Thomas  Pell  was  authorized 
in  behalf  of  the  colony  and  with  the  design  of  securing  pos- 
session and  title  to  all  the  lands  included  within  the  bound- 
aries of  the  patent,  to  buy  of  the  Indians  all  that  large  tract 
lying  between  Westchester  and  Hudson's  river,  and  "  the 
waters  which  make  the  Manhadoes  an  island."*  The  Gen- 
eral Assembly  also  lent  a  willing  ear  to  the  petitions  of  those 
plantations  that  were  situated  upon  the  western  extremity 
of  Long  Island,  and  took  them  under  the  protection  of  Con- 
necticut, for  the  charter  included  the  adjoining  islands  within 
her  limits.  It  was  also  resolved  that  Haitimonasset  should 
be  a  town.  During  the  same  month,  twelve  planters,  most 
of  them  from  Hartford,  Windsor  and  Guilford,  took  up  their 
abode  there.  Out  of  respect  to  Mr.  Griswold,  one  of  the 
principal  proprietors  of  the  town,  it  was  afterwards  named 
Killingworth,  a  corruption  of  the  historical  name  of  Kenil- 
worth,  the  birthplace  of  the  Griswolds  of  Connecticut. 

Meanwhile  New  Haven  continued  to  struggle  against  her 
fate.  On  the22d  of  October,  her  General  Court  convened,  and 
Governor  Leete  hastened  to  present  to  the  freemen  the  details 
of  all  that  had  passed,  and  to  take  their  advice.  The  members 
of  the  Court  reviewed  the  behavior  of  Connecticut  towards 
them,  the  rights  of  government  that  she  persisted  in  asserting 
over  them,  the  disturbances  that  she  fomented  in  the  several 
towns,  by  giving  encouragement  to  malcontents  and  by 
sowing  the  seeds  of  sedition  broadcast  within  their  borders — 
and  with  unyielding  courage  resolved  "  that  no  treaty  be  made 
by  this  colony  with  Connecticut  before  such  acts  of  power 
exerted  by  them  upon  any  of  our  towns,  be  revoked  or  re- 
called, according  to  the  honorable  Mr.  Winthrop's  letter  urg- 
ing the  same,  the  commissioners'  determination  and  our  fre- 
quent desires."     With  one  consent  they  resolved  to  petition 

*  Colonial  Records,  i.  418  ;  Brodhead,  i.  733. 


222  HISTOEY   OF   CONNECTICUT. 

the  king  for  a  bill  of  exemption  from  the  government  of  Con- 
necticut^ and  voted  to  raise  three  hundred  pounds  by  a  tax 
to  carry  out  this  object.  They  took  another  step  of  a  very 
decided  character,  that  could  hardly  fail  to  hasten  the  crisis. 
They  ordered  that  in  all  the  towns  belonging  to  their  juris- 
diction, the  proper  authorities  should  issue  warrants  to  at- 
tach the  personal  estate  of  those  who  had  refused  or  should 
thereafter  refuse  to  pay  the  taxes  by  law  imposed  upon  them. 
In  these  gloomy  circumstances  they  also  sought  the  divine 
aid,  and  appointed  a  day  of  fasting  and  prayer  throughout 
the  colony. 

I  have  said  that  the  doom  of  this  little  republic  was  im- 
pending. How  could  it  well  be  otherwise  ?  A  powerful 
colony  in  the  field  against  her,  clad  in  the  impenetrable  pan- 
oply of  the  royal  charter,  reflecting  far  and  wide  a  baleful 
light  that  struck  blind  for  a  time  even  the  proud  eye  of  the 
colony  upon  the  Bay,  and  frightened  little  Plymouth  "from 
her  propriety ;"  an  empty  treasury,  and  rebellion  springing 
up  in  the  midst  of  her  own  plantations — how  could  it  be  oth- 
erwise ?  A  more  wretched  state  of  confusion  and  enmity 
can  hardly  be  imagined.  The  moment  that  the  tax-gath- 
erers of  New  Haven  attempted  to  put  in  force  the  decree  of 
her  General  Court,  and  attach  the  property  of  those  who  re- 
fused to  do  their  part  towards  defraying  the  expenses  of  the 
government,  the  recusants  fled  to  Connecticut  for  protection, 
and  were  received  by  her  with  open  arms.  The  govern- 
ment was  so  poor  that  it  could  not  even  pay  the  ordinary 
salaries  to  its  officers. 

When  the  officers  began  to  collect  the  taxes  by  force,  civil 
war  was  the  immediate  result. 

John  Rossiter  and  his  son,  of  Guilford,  who  had  refused  to 
submit  to  the  authorities  at  New  Haven  and  who  had  been 
punished  with  some  severity  for  their  offenses,  now  fled  to 
Hartford  for  redress.  They  readily  procured  two  magis- 
trates, a  constable,  and  some  private  volunteers  from  Con- 
necticut, who,  armed  with  muskets,  repaired  to  Guilford  and 
arrived  there  on  the  evenino;  of  the  30th  of  December.     In 


[1664.]  "NEW  HAVEN  CASE   STATED."  223 

the  night  they  fired  off  their  guns  in  the  town  and  alarmed 
the  inhabitants  to  such  a  degree  that  governor  Leete  was 
obliged  to  send  messengers  to  Branford  and  New  Haven  for 
assistance.  Both  these  towns,  startled  from  their  sleep  in 
the  dead  of  the  night  by  this  executive  summons,  immediate- 
ly sent  forward  an  armed  force  for  the  relief  of  Guilford. 
Governor  Leete  and  the  magistrates  conducted  the  affair 
with  such  prudence  that  no  injury  resulted  from  this  violence. 
The  Connecticut  officers,  who  had  come  out  upon  this  noc- 
turnal errand,  contented  themselves  with  remonstrating 
against  the  conduct  of  the  authorities  of  New  Haven,  in  lay- 
ing taxes  upon  those  who  had  placed  themselves  under  the 
protection  of  Connecticut.  They  desired  that  the  matter 
might  be  postponed  for  further  consideration.* 

On  the  7th  of  January  1664,  governor  Leete  called  a 
special  court  at  New  Haven.  He  opened  the  session  by 
stating  to  the  Court  what  troubles  had  grown  out  of  the 
order  for  the  distraining  of  taxes,  and  with  what  earnestness 
the  magistrates  from  Connecticut  had  called  upon  New  Ha- 
ven to  refrain  from  the  exercise  of  this  authority,  which, 
they  claimed,  w^as  in  violation  of  the  rights  of  the  citizens  of 
Connecticut.  The  governor  asked  the  Court  carefully  to 
consider  this  demand.  They  made  answer  that  it  had  proved 
idle  to  attempt  to  make  treaties  with  Connecticut,  and  that 
they  were  resolved  to  carry  on  no  further  negotiations  with 
her,  until  she  should  have  restored  to  New  Haven  the  citi- 
zens that  she  had  unlawfully  seduced  from  their  allegiance, 
and  still  continued  to  protect. 

Mr.  Davenport  and  Mr.  Street  were  appointed  a  commit- 
tee to  make  a  new  statement  of  the  grievances  of  New  Ha- 
ven and  transmit  it  in  writing  to  Connecticut.  These  gen- 
tlemen entered  with  alacrity  upon  the  discharge  of  this  duty. 
The  result  was,  a  paper  in  the  nature  of  a  remonstrance  of 
singular  ability.  It  was  called  "  The  New  Haven  Case 
Stated,"  and  is  written  in  Davenport's  best  manner.  In  all 
our  New  England  colonial  papers,  I  have  not  found  a  more 
*  Trumbull,  i.  263. 


224  HISTORY  OF  CONNECTICUT. 

touching  and  eloquent  narrative,  nor  have  I  ever  seen  a  more 
convincing  argument.  Unlike  it  predecessors  from  the  same 
vigorous  pen,  it  is  free  from  sarcastic  allusions  and  has  a 
mournful  strain  of  accusation,  such  as  we  might  suppose  a 
martyr  at  the  stake  would  address  to  his  persecutors.  It  has 
a  vitality  and  force  that  is  indeed  refreshing  to  one  whose 
eye  has  been  long  exposed  to  the  dull  pages  of  records  and 
state  documents  of  the  seventeenth  century,  whose  blinding 
words,  like  clouds  of  sand,  seem  to  sweep  along  over  an  inter- 
minable desert.*  This  paper,  however,  produced  no  change 
in  the  policy  of  Connecticut. 

On  the  12th  of  May  1664,  the  General  Assembly  con- 
vened, and  again  asserted  their  claims  to  Long  Island  and 
appointed  officers  at  Hempstead,  Jamaica,  Newtown,  Oyster 
Bay,  Flushing,  and  all  the  towns  upon  the  western  extremity 
of  the  Island. f 

In  the  same  month  the  freemen  met  at  New  Haven  and 
held  a  general  election.  They  reappointed  Leete  governor ; 
William  Jones  was  made  deputy  governor.  These  gentle- 
men were  also  chosen  commissioners  to  the  Congress  next 
to  convene  at  Hartford.  The  usual  number  of  magistrates 
was  elected,  but  two  of  them,  Mr.  Treat  and  Mr.  Nash,  de- 
clined to  accept  the  place,  for  they  foresaw  that  the  down- 
fall of  New  Haven  vv-as  at  hand.  So  depressed  were  the 
hearts  of  the  freemen,  that  no  business  appears  to  have  been 
done  at  this  Court,  as  it  left  no  records  of  its  proceedings. 

On  the  12th  of  March  1664,  the  duke  of  York  ob- 
tained a  patent  of  a  vast  tract  of  country  lying  to  the  north 
of  New  England  as  it  was  then  defined ;  and  what  was  more 
alarming  still  to  New  Haven,  including  "  all  that  island  or 
islands  commonly  called  by  the  general  name  or  names  of 
Meitowax,  or  Long  Island,  situate  and  being  towards  the 
west  of  Cape  Cod  and  the  narrow  Nighgansets,  abutting  up- 

*  This  state  paper  may  be  found  entire  in  the  Appendix  to  this  volume,  marked 
(D.)  A  portion  of  it  has  been  pubhshed  before  by  the  author  of  "  Historical  Dis- 
courses." 

+  Colonial  Records,  i.  428.  429. 


[1G64.]  AERIVAL  OF   COL.   NICHOLS.  225 

on  the  main-land,  between  the  two  rivers  there  called  or 
known  by  the  several  names  of  Connecticut  and  Hudson's 
river,  and  all  the  lands  from  the  west  side  of  Connecti- 
cut river  to  the  east  side  of  Delaware  Bay,"  Massachu- 
setts and  Plymouth,  too,  had  much  occasion  to  be  alarmed, 
for  Nantucket,  Martha's  Vineyard,  and  all  the  islands  con- 
tiguous to  them,  that  studded  the  main  ocean,  were  embraced 
in  the  patent. 

Thus  was  the  whole  territory  of  New  Haven  with  a  large 
part  of  Connecticut  granted  out  to  this  royal  subject. 

The  duke  lost  no  time  in  taking  possession  of  his  new  es- 
tate. Doubtless  a  main  object  of  this  patent  was  the  reduc- 
tion of  New  Netherlands,  and  an  armed  fleet  soon  sailed  for 
the  American  coast,  under  the  command  of  Colonel  Richard 
Nichols,  who  was  instructed  to  bring  all  the  Dutch  settle- 
ments on  the  continent  to  subjection.  He  was  further  au- 
thorized, in  conjunction  with  Sir  Robert  Carr,  George  Cart- 
wright  and  Samuel  Maverick,  Esquires,  to  visit  the  New 
England  colonies  and  to  hear  and  determine  all  controversies 
that  existed  between  them.* 

On  the  23d  of  July,  Nichols  arrived  in  Boston  harbor.  He 
made  known  to  the  colonies  his  errand  and  in  the  name  of 
the  king,  called  upon  New  England  to  raise  troops  to  assist 
in  reducing  New  Netherlands.  He  also  dispatched  letters 
to  Governor  Winthrop  of  Connecticut,  inviting  him  to  meat 
him  at  the  western  extremity  of  Long  Island  for  consultation. 
Accompanying  the  commission  of  Nichols  and  others,  came 
a  very  gracious  letter  from  the  king,  bearing  date,  Whitehall, 
April  23,  1664,  and  addressed  to  the  governor  and  company 
of  Connecticut.  Whether  it  can  be  fairly  inferred  from  the 
tenor  of  this  letter,  that  opposition  to  the  union  on  the  part 
of  New  Haven  had  been  anticipated,  as  an  event  likely  to 
happen,  at  the  time  when  the  Connecticut  patent  was  granted, 
I  leave  it  for  the  reader  to  decide.     At  any  rate,  the  first 

*  See  Brodhead,  i.  726,  735,  736;  Hutchinson,  i.  211;  Ti-umbull,  i.  266. 
This  commission  may  be  found  at  length  in  Hutchinson,  i.  App.  XV.  and  in 
Hazard,  ii.  638,  639. 

15 


226  HISTORY   OF   CONNECTICUT. 

sentence  of  the  royal  letter  seems  calculated  to  inspire  con- 
fidence rather  than-  terror  in  the  hearts  of  those  to  whom  it 
was  written.     It  begins  as  follows  : 

"Charles,  R, 

"  Trusty  and  well  beloved  we  greet  you  well, 
having,  according  to  the  resolution  we  declared  to  Mr.  John 
Winthrop  at  the  time  when  we  renewed  your  charter,  now 
sent  these  persons  of  known  abilities  and  affections  to  us — 
that  is  to  say,  Colonel  Richard  Nichols,  Sir  Robert  Carr, 
Knight,  George  Cartwright,  Esq.,  and  Samuel  Maverick,  Esq., 
our  commissioners,  to  visit  those  our  several  colonies  and 
plantations  in  New  England,  to  the  end  that  we  may  be  the 
better  informed  of  the  state  and  welfare  of  our  good  subjects, 
whose  prosperity  is  very  dear  to  us.  We  can  make  no  ques- 
tion but  that  they  shall  find  that  reception  from  you  which 
may  testify  your  respect  to  us  from  whom  they  are  met  for 
your  good."* 

Whatever  construction  governor  Winthrop  may  have 
given  to  this  document,  he  readily  complied  with  the  request 
of  Colonel  Nichols,  and,  in  company  with  several  of  the  magis- 
trates and  principal  gentlemen  of  Connecticut,  soon  joined 
him  at  the  place  designated. 

The  time  had  now  arrived  when  the  dominion  of  the 
Dutch  in  America  was  about  to  be  extinguished  forever. 
On  the  20th  of  August,  with  a  formidable  English  fleet  and 
armament  to  give  weight  to  the  summons,  Colonel  Nichols 
demanded  the  surrender  of  the  town  and  forts  upon  the 
island  of  Manhadoes.  Governor  Stuyvesant  was  by  no 
means  prepared  to  obey  this  summons,  and  unable  as  he  was 
in  the  disordered  state  of  his  province,  to  make  a  successful 
stand  against  the  invaders,  he  was  still  resolved  not  to  yield 
without  giving  the  British  commander  a  taste  of  his  well 
known  skill  in  diplomacy.  Instead,  therefore,  of  lowering 
the  Dutch  colors,  his  excellency  drew  up  a  formidable  state- 
ment, and  I  believe  a  truthful  one,  of  the  title  of  the  States 
General  to  the  country  then  in  their  possession  in  America. 

*  See  Appendix,  where  this  entire  letter  may  be  found  marked  (C.) 


[1664.]  WINTHROP  AND   STUYVESANT.  227 

With  the  stately  poHteness  that  marks  all  his  official  corres- 
pondence, he  said  that  he  had  no  doubt  that  had  the  king  of 
England  been  aware  of  the  claims  of  the  Dutch,  he  never 
would  have  taken  such  measures  to  extinguish  them.  In 
conclusion,  he  assured  the  British  commissioners  "  that  he 
should  not  submit  to  his  demands,  nor  fear  any  evils  but  such 
as  God  in  his  Providence  should  inflict  upon  him." 

Colonel  Nichols  had  offered  to  the  inhabitants  the  most 
perfect  protection  of  life,  liberty,  and  property,  provided  the 
town  and  fort  were  surrendered  as  he  demanded.  The  bur- 
gomasters explained  to  the  people  the  terms  proposed  by 
Nichols.  This  did  not  satisfy  them.  They  insisted  on  see- 
ing the  document  itself  Stuyvesant  went  in  person  and  ex- 
plained to  the  assembled  burghers  the  impropriety  of  exhibit- 
ing it  to  the  public.  It  would  be  disapproved  of,  he  said,  in 
the  Fatherland ;  it  would  discourage  the  people.  But  the 
citizens  prevailed,  and  finally  procured  a  sight  of  the  paper. 

Colonel  Nichols  now  wrote  a  second  letter  to  Winthrop, 
begging  him  to  wait  upon  Stuyvesant  and  assure  him  that  if 
he  would  surrender,  the  most  liberal  provisions  should  be 
made  for  the  Dutch.  The  terms  of  his  proposal  were  fully 
detailed  in  this  second  letter.  Provided  with  so  favorable  a 
chart  to  guide  his  negotiations,  Winthrop,  under  a  flag  of 
truce,  repaired  to  the  city,  and,  presenting  his  letter  to  Stuy- 
vesant outside  of  the  fort,  begged  him  to  surrender.  Stuyves- 
ant refused,  but,  retiring  within  the  fort*  he  opened  the  letter 
and  then  read  it  in  presence  of  the  burgomasters,  who  asked 
that  its  contents  might  be  made  public.  Stuyvesant  de- 
clined to  comply  with  the  request.  The  burgomasters  grew 
loud  and  clamorous,  and  at  last,  Stuyvesant,  in  a  fit  of  passion, 
tore  the  letter  in  pieces.  The  enraged  citizens  now  left 
their  work  at  the  palisades,  and  flew  to  the  Stadt  Huys.  A 
committee  was  chosen  from  their  number  to  wait  upon  Stuy- 
vesant and  demand  the  letter.  "  The  letter !"  shouted  the 
burgomasters.  "The  letter,  the  letter!"  reiterated  the  mob. 
Nothing  else  would  pacify  them.  Stuyvesant  was  obliged 
at  last  to  gather  up  the  fragments  of  the  mutilated  paper, 


228  HISTORY  OF   CONNECTICUT. 

and  give  a  copy  of  it  to  the  burgomasters  for  their  in- 
spection. 

When  it  was  found  on  what  favorable  terms  the  capitula- 
tion was  proposed,  solicitations  poured  in  upon  Stuyvesant 
from  all  quarters,  begging  him  to  surrender.  Still  he  kept 
his  ground.  At  last  Nichols  ordered  Capt.  Hyde,  who  com- 
manded the  squadron,  to  reduce  the  fort.  Two  of  the  ships 
now  landed  their  forces.  The  others  sailed  in  front  of  the 
fort,  and  anchored  close  at  hand.  The  undaunted  Stuyves- 
ant, while  they  were  passing  the  fortification,  stood  upon  one 
of  its  angles  and  watched  them.  A  guard  with  a  lighted 
match  in  hand,  stood  near  by,  waiting  the  orders  of  the  gov- 
ernor, who  with  difficulty  could  be  dissuaded  from  commenc- 
ing an  attack  that  must  have  resulted  in  the  total  discom- 
fiture of  the  garrison  and  in  much  bloodshed.  He  finally 
left  the  fort  and  went  into  the  city  to  oppose  the  landing  of 
the  English  troops.  He  now,  as  a  last  resort,  sent  a  deputa- 
tion to  Nichols,  with  a  letter,  in  which  he  said,  that  although 
he  felt  it  to  be  his  duty  to  "  stand  the  storm,"  yet  he  was 
willing  to  try  what  arrangement  could  be  made.  "  To-mor- 
row," said  Nicholas,  "  I  will  speak  with  you  at  Manhattan." 
"  Friends  will  be  welcome,  if  they  come  in  a  friendly  man- 
ner," replied  the  ambassadors.  "  I  shall  come  with  ships  and 
soldiers,"  was  the  stern  answer — "raise  the  white  flag  of 
peace  at  the  fort,  and  then  something  may  be  considered." 

Thus  beset  by  his  friends  and  pressed  by  his  enemies,  the 
brave  Peter  Stuyvesant  was  compelled  to  capitulate ;  and 
yet,  said  he,  in  answer  to  the  suplications  of  the  women  and 
children  who  thronged  about  him,  "  I  would  much  rather  be 
carried  out  dead."* 

Thus  was  the  Dutch  power  in  America  annihilated.  I 
suppose  no  good  man,  who  knows  the  facts,  will  be  likely  to 
attempt  a  justification  of  this  aggressive  war,  condemned  by 
Camden,  and  acknowledged  by  Clarendon  to  have  been 
commenced  "without  a  shadow  of  justice." 

*  Trumbull,  i.  266,  268 ;  Holmes,  i.  334 ;  Brodhead,  i.  738,  741 ;  Smith's 
Hist,  of  N.  York,  p.  10,  12,  14,  22,  &c. 


[1664.]  THE   CONTROVERSY  CONTINUED.  229 

Scarcely  had  the  royal  commissioners  sailed  out  of  Boston 
harbor  for  New  Amsterdam,  when  Mr.  Whiting  of  Connec- 
ticut, who  was  at  Boston  during  their  stay  at  that  port, 
hastened  to  New  Haven  to  inform  the  authorities  there  how 
loftily  the  king's  functionaries  carried  themselves,  in  what 
danger  the  colonies  all  were,  and  urging  the  people  of  New 
Haven  to  throw  themselves  into  the  arms  of  Connecticut 
without  delay,  to  assist  her  in  defending  the  liberties  and 
boundaries  named  in  the  charter. 

Governor  Leete,  on  the  Uth  of  August,  called  a  General 
Court,  and  laid  open  to  the  freemen  the  intelligence  thus  re- 
ceived. A  long  and  serious  debate  ensued.  It  was  quite 
obvious  that  the  magistrates  and  leading  gentlemen  were 
most  of  them  disposed  to  yield,  if  not  to  the  solicitations  of 
Connecticut,  at  least  to  the  urgent  necessities  that  pressed 
upon  them.  But  the  people  generally  were  still  averse  to  the 
union.  It  was  finally  resolved  "  that  if  Connecticut  should 
come  and  assert  her  claim,  they  would  submit  until  the  meet- 
ing of  the  commissioners  of  the  united  colonies." 

•On  the  1st  of  September,  the  New  England  Congress  con- 
vened at  Hartford.  The  commissioners  from  New  Haven 
took  their  seats  in  that  body  for  the  last  time.  After  a  care- 
ful hearing,  the  Congress  decided  that  "  although  the  Court 
did  not  approve  of  the  manner  in  which  Connecticut  had 
proceeded,  yet  they  earnestly  pressed  a  speedy  and  amicable 
union  of  the  two  colonies." 

In  conformity  with  the  advice  of  the  Congress,  governor 
Leete,  on  the  14th  of  the  same  month,  called  another  Gen- 
eral Court.  He  placed  before  them  the  reasons  urged  by 
Connecticut,  and  the  advice  of  the  united  colonies.  The 
struggle  was  protracted  and  bitter.  The  principal  opposition 
came  from  New  Haven  and  Branford,*  where  Davenport 
and  Pierson  held  an  almost  absolute  sway  over  the  inhabi- 
tants, and  especially  over  the  members  of  the  churches,  who 

*  The  Rev.  Mr.  Pierson  of  Branford,  and  almost  his  entire  congregation, 
were  so  dissatisfied  with  the  union,  that  they  soon  removed  to  Newark,  New 
Jersey.    Hubbard,  c.  41 ;  Hoknes,  i.  338 ;  Hazard,  ii.  520. 


230  HISTORY  OF  CONNECTICUT. 

were  determined  to  keep  the  hem  of  their  garments  pure 
from  the  anticipated  stains  of  the  democracy  in  Connecticut, 
that  allowed  men  to  enjoy  the  rights  of  voters  and  hold  any 
offices  of  trust  without  the  qualification  of  church  member- 
ship. Nor  could  the  uncompromising  Davenport  reflect 
without  tears  that  the  city  laid  out  by  himself  and  Eaton, 
his  bosom  friend,  and  adorned  as  the  capital  of  a  prosperous 
republic,  should  thus  be  shorn  of  its  metropolitan  honors  and 
degraded  into  a  provincial  town. 

Davenport  had  been  the  father  of  the  state,  and  it  was 
like  the  blotting  out  of  his  own  existence  were  he  to  consent 
that  the  insignia  of  republican  authority  should  be  carried 
from  the  sacred  spot  where  he  had  first  deposited  them.  Be- 
sides he  had  committed  himself  against  this  measure,  and 
Davenport  was  one  of  those  men  who  will  die  rather  than  be 
driven  from  a  position  when  once  they  have  taken  it.  He 
held  the  church  in  his  hand,  and  the  members  of  the  church 
constituted  the  state.  Desperately  he  disputed  the  ground, 
inch  by  inch,  against  those  who  contended  for  the  union,  and 
again  succeeded  in  preventing  a  vote  in  favor  of  the  measure. 

Connecticut  now  appears  to  have  begun  to  be  thoroughly 
alarmed  for  herself.  The  duke  of  York's  claim  threatened, 
notwithstanding  the  loyahty  of  Connecticut,  to  dismember 
her  territory,  and  the  duke  and  dutchess  of  Hamilton  were  in 
the  act  of  prosecuting  their  claims  to  an  old  grant,  that  ap- 
peared likely  to  interfere  with  the  colony.  This  matter  was 
also  referred  to  the  royal  commissioners.  Besides,  the  dis- 
cussions in  the  New  Haven  plantations  were  like  an  epidemic, 
that  they  might  not  always  be  able  to  confine  within  such 
narrow  boundaries.  The  wise  men  of  the  colony,  had  there- 
fore as  much  as  they  could  well  do  to  keep  the  little  vessel 
afloat  with  the  most  skillful  pilotage.  But  they  were  equal 
to  the  emergency. 

In  October,  the  General  Assembly,  with  a  liberality  as 
bland  as  if  it  had  welled  up  from  the  heart  of  the  colony, 
voted  to  make  the  king's  commissioners  a  present  of  five 
hundred  bushels  of  corn.     At  the  same  time,  they  appointed 


[1664.]  SERVICES   OF   WINTHROP.  231 

a  committee  of  men  of  great  ability  to  settle  the  boundaries 
between  the  colony  and  the  duke  of  York,  and  another  to 
agree  upon  the  Hnes  that  were  to  divide  them  from  Massa- 
chusetts and  Rhode  Island.  They  also  charged  these  com- 
mittees to  give  up  no  part  of  the  lands  included  in  the  char- 
ter limits.*  A  third  committee  of  three  gentlemen,  at  the 
head  of  whom  was  the  Hon.  Samuel  Sherman,  was  appointed, 
with  instructions  to  repair  to  New  Haven,  and,  "  in  his  maj- 
esty's name  to  require  the  inhabitants  of  New  Haven,  Mil- 
ford,  Branford,  Guilford  and  Stamford,  to  submit  to  the  gov- 
ernment established  by  his  majesty's  previous  grant  to  this 
colony,  and  to  receive  their  answer.''  This  committee  was 
further  ordered  by  the  General  Assembly  to  declare  all  the 
freemen  in  these  towns  free  of  the  corporation  of  Connecticut, 
and  to  admit  such  others  as  they  should  find  qualified,  and 
administer  the  freeman's  oath  to  them.  They  were  directed 
also  to  proclaim  in  the  hearing  of  the  people  there,  that  the 
General  Assembly  had  clothed  Leete,  Jones,  Gilbert,  Treat, 
Law,  Fenn,  and  Crane,  with  the  authority  of  magistrates. f 
The  committee  faithfully  executed  the  trust.  Whatever 
alarm  may  have  pervaded  the  public  mind  in  Connecticut  as 
to  the  boundary  question,  I  do  not  think  that  Winthrop  could 
have  labored  under  any  very  oppressive  apprehensions  in  re- 
gard to  it.  He  had  rendered  important  services  to  the  king 
and  the  duke  of  York  by  his  presence  and  councils  at  Man- 
hattan, and  had  been  instrumental  in  bringing  about  without 
bloodshed,  an  achievment  that  was  even  then  understood  to 
contribute  much  to  the  power  of  the  British  sceptre  ;  al- 
though no  human  foresight  could  at  that  time  have  had  any 
thing  more  than  an  imperfect  glimpse  of  that  peerless  city 
that  was,  within  the  next  century  and  three  quarters,  to  rise 
up  like  a  glorious  vision  upon  the  brink  of  the  little  river 
whose  waters,  in  the  simple  language  of  the  General  Assem- 
bly of  Connecticut,  "  make  Manhadoes  an  island."  Besides, 
Winthrop  knew  the  nature  of  the  king,  and  perhaps  was  by 
this  time  not  without  some  knowedge — for  he  read  character 

*  Colonial  Records,  i.  435.  t  Colonial  Records,  i.  437. 


232  HISTORY  OF  CONNECTICUT. 

with  an  intuitive  keenness — of  the  views  and  intentions  of 
Nichols  and  the  other  commissioners  upon  the  boundary 
question.  He  had  also,  too,  a  thorough  knowledge  of  the 
coast,  and  too  practical  a  turn  of  mind,  not  to  be  aware  that 
it  was  better  for  Connecticut  to  give  up  her  claim  to  Long 
Island  and  Delaware,  and  have  an  unbroken  domain  upon 
the  sea-shore,  with  fixed  limits,  and  of  sufficient  size  to  be 
active  without  being  unwieldy,  than  to  divide  her  energies 
to  maintain  a  feeble  authointy  over  a  small  and  scattered  popu- 
lation. Hence,  I  am  not  sure  that  he  was  much  averse  to 
the  decision  of  the  commissioners,  when,  on  the  30th  of  No- 
vember, they  declared  it  to  be  as  follows  : 

"  That  the  southern  bounds  of  his  majesty's  colony  of  Con- 
necticut, is  the  sea,  and  that  Long  Island  is  to  be  under  the 
government  of  his  royal  highness,  the  duke  of  York,  as  is  ex- 
pressed by  plain  words  in  the  said  patents  respectively.  We 
also  order  and  declare,  that  the  creek  or  river  called  Mama- 
roneck,  which  is  reputed  to  be  about  twelve  miles  to  the  east 
of  Westchester,  and  a  line  drawn  from  the  east  point  or 
side,  where  the  fresh  water  falls  into  the  salt,  at  high-water 
mark,  north  northwest,  to  the  line  of  Massachusetts,  be  the 
western  bounds  of  the  said  colony ;  and  the  plantations  ly- 
ing westward  of  that  creek,  and  line  so  drawn,  to  be  under 
his  royal  highness'  government;  and  all  plantations  lying 
eastward  of  that  creek  and  line,  to  be  under  the  government 
of  Connecticut."* 

This  decision  put  an  end  to  the  long  struggle  between 
Connecticut  and  New  Haven, 

On  the  13th  of  December,  the  freemen  of  New  Haven, 
held  their  last  General  Court.  It  was  very  thinly  attended, 
but  it  adopted  with  one  consent  the  following  resolutions  : 

"  1.  That,  by  this  act  or  vote,  we  be  not  understood  to 
justify  Connecticut's  former  actings,  nor  any  thing  disorderly 
done  by  their  people,  on  such  accounts. 

"  2.  That,  by  it,  we  be  not  apprehended  to  have  any  hand 
in  breaking;  or  dissolving  the  confederation. 


*  Trumbull,  i.  27.3. 


[1664.]  THE    UNION  EFFECTED.  233 

"3.  Yet,  in  loyality  to  the  king's  majesty,  when  an  au- 
thentic copy  of  the  determination  of  his  majesty's  commis- 
sioners is  pubHshed,  to  be  recorded  with  us,  if  thereby  it  shall 
appear  to  our  committee,  that  we  are,  by  his  majesty's  au- 
thority, now  put  under  Connecticut  patent,  we  shall  submit, 
by  a  necessity  brought  upon  us,  by  the  means  of  Connecti- 
cut aforesaid  :  but  with  a  salve  jure  of  our  former  rights  and 
claims,  as  a  people,  who  have  not  yet  been  heard  in  point 
of  plea."* 

Thus  the  colony  of  New  Haven,  having  drawn  the  folds 
of  her  mantle  about  her,  as  if  to  prepare  herself  to  die  with 
the  dignity  that  became  her,  found,  with  a  pleased  surprise, 
that  union  was  not  annihilation,  and  in  the  arms  of  her  elder 
sister,  whom  she  learned  at  last  both  to  forgive  and  to  love, 
"lay  down  to  pleasant  dreams." 

*  Trumbull,  i.  274. 


CHAPTER  XI. 


THE   EEGICIDES. 


The  restoration  of  Charles  11.  was  the  result  of  a  com- 
promise between  all  the  factions  that  had  participated  in  the 
struggles  that  preceded  it.  Indeed,  some  of  the  most  dis- 
tinguished opposers  of  the  tyranny  of  Charles  I.,  and  some 
of  the  most  faithful  adherents  of  Cromwell,  were  indispensa- 
ble agents  in  hastening  a  result  that  filled  England  with  jubi- 
lee and  awakened  as  lively  anticipations  as  had  ever  swelled 
the  bosom  of  a  nation. 

Desirous  of  gaining  the  favor  of  all  parties,  Charles  had 
promised  to  be  forgiving  to  all  who  were  disposed  to  return 
to  their  allegiance,  and  at  Breda  had  proffered  an  indemnity 
to  all  criminals  save  those  whom  the  parliament  should  ex- 
cept.* As  far  as  his  fickle  nature  was  capable  of  gratitude, 
he  certainly  entertained  it  towards  those  who  had  aided  in 
his  return.  The  presbyterians  as  well  as  the  royalists  were 
admitted  into  his  counsels  and  had  their  share  of  the  gifts 
that  were  at  his  disposal.  He  created  Annesly,  earl  of  An- 
glesey ;  Ashley  Cooper,  lord  Ashley ;  and  Dengil  Hollis,  lord 
Hollis.  He  also  made  the  good  earl  of  Manchester  his  lord 
chamberlain ;  lord  Say,  his  priv}^  seal ;  and  stretched  his  lib- 
eraUty  so  far  as  to  appoint  two  presbyterian  clergymen, 
Calamy  and  Baxter,  to  the  place  of  chaplains  to  the  king. 
He  created  Montague,  earl  of  Sandwich ;  his  friend  Monk, 
duke  of  Albemarle  ;  Sir  William  Maurice,  secretary  of  state ; 
Sir  Edward  Hyde,  earl  of  Clarendon,  lord  chancellor  and 
prime  minister.     He  raised  Ormond  from  the  rank  of  a  mar- 

*  For  a  full  account  of  the  restoration  and  of  the  character  of  Charles  U.,  con- 
sult Camden's  "Imperial  History  of  England,"  chapters  vi  and  vii.  This  noble 
work  is  so  difficult  to  be  had,  that  few  but  the  learned  can  have  access  to  it. 
Wlioever  among  our  American  publishers  has  the  courage  to  furnish  the  public 
with  a  cheap  edition  of  it,  will  be  doubly  paid — in  the  consciousness  of  having 
done  a  benevolent  act,  and  in  the  pleasant  personal  experience  of  having  added 
to  his  pecuniary  resources. 


PresiaexLtof  Yale  CoTleffe  from  1777  to  1795. 


HolKster's  HtsCoi-v  ut  C.icinucticn.t 


[1660.; 


JUDGES  EXECUTED  IN  ENGLAND.         235 


quis  to  that  of  a  duke,  and  made  him  steward  of  the  household  ; 
while  the  earl  of  Southampton  was  appointed  high  treasurer.* 

Policy,  doubtless,  held  with  gratitude  a  divided  empire  in 
the  king's  breast ;  but  he  is  entitled  to  the  credit  of  following 
good  advice  at  first,  whatever  may  have  been  the  follies  and 
debaucheries  that  afterwards  made  his  court  so  shamefully 
eminent. 

The  commons  were  disposed  to  have  past  offences  forgot- 
ten, but  the  lords  were  not  so  easily  pacified.  In  relation  to 
the  unhappy  men  who  had  sat  in  judgment  upon  the  king's 
father,  and  who  were  called  then,  as  they  still  are,  regicides, 
the  lords  were  especially  intolerant,  and  encouraged  the 
king  to  except  every  one  of  them  from  the  general  pardon. 
Thus  advised,  the  willing  monarch,  almost  as  soon  as  he  had 
seated  himself  firmly  upon  the  throne  of  his  ancestors,  issued 
a  proclamation  announcing  that  such  of  the  judges  of  Charles 
I.  as  did  not  within  fourteen  days,  surrender  themselves  up 
as  prisoners,  should  receive  no  pardon.  Of  course  great  alarm 
was  awakened  in  the  hearts  of  the  regicides  and  of  their 
friends  by  this  announcement.  Nineteen  delivered  them- 
selves up,  and  awaited  the  event  with  the  deepest  anxiety. 
Others  fled,  and  were  fortunate  enough  to  elude  pursuit  and 
escape  beyond  the  seas ;  and  others  were  arrested  in  their 
flight.  Ten  of  these  unhappy  men,  whose  worst  crime — if 
they  were  guilty  of  any — was,  that  they  partook  too  deeply 
of  the  same  maddening  cup  that  turned  even  the  philosophic 
brain  of  Milton,  were  executed,  and  the  remains  of  some  of 
the  principal  actors  in  that  too  fearful  tragedy,  were  treated 
with  profane  indignities,  such  as  have  not  since  that  day  dis- 
graced the  name  of  English  freedom. f  Two  of  these,  Ed- 
ward Whalley  and  William  Goffe,  arrived  in  Boston  in  July, 
1660.     John  Dixwell  came  afterwards. 

*  Camden's  Imperial  Hist,  of  Eng.,  216. 

+  The  judges  who  wei'e  executed  were  Harrison,  Scot,  Scrope,  Jones,  Cle- 
ments, and  Carew ;  besides  Cook,  the  solicitor  ;  Hugh  Peters,  the  chaplain  ;  and 
Hacker  and  Axtell,  who  commanded  the  guard.  The  bones  of  Cromwell,  Brad- 
shaw,  Ireton  and  Pride,  were  dug  up,  hanged  at  Tyburn,  and  then  buried  be- 
neath the  gallows!     Camden,  p.  217;  Wade,  p.  222. 


236  HISTORY   OF   CONNECTICUT. 

As  it  was  not  known  at  that  time  what  disposition  would  be 
made  of  them,  and  as  it  was  beHeved  that  they  would  be  em- 
braced in  the  general  act  of  indemnity,  they  were  treated  by 
Governor  Endicott  and  the  other  principal  gentlemen  of  Bos- 
ton, with  all  the  marks  of  respect  that  were  thought  to  be- 
long to  men  who  had  filled  high  places  in  the  government, 
and  whose  venerable  features  and  soldierly  bearing  com- 
ported so  well  with  their  high  reputation,  as  eminent  civilians 
and  military  leaders.  They  were  constantly  entertained  at 
the  houses  of  the  more  opulent,  and  from  the  curiosity  that 
their  presence  awakened  in  the  public  mind,  all  their  move- 
ments were  watched  with  a  lively  interest.  They  soon  went 
to  Cambridge,  where  they  stayed  until  February.  While 
there,  they  openly  attended  upon  public  worship  on  the  Sab- 
bath and  on  other  days,  and  made  no  effort  to  diguise  from 
the  people  who  and  what  they  were. 

As  soon,  however,  as  it  was  made  known  in  Boston  in 
what  light  the  king  looked  upon  the  official  conduct  of  these 
men,  and  that  they  were  regarded  as  traitors,  a  large  share  of 
those  who  had  claimed  to  be  their  friends,  avoided  them  as 
if  they  had  been  infected  with  some  contagious  disease. 

Finding  the  indulgence  and  favor  of  the  authorities  of 
Massachusetts  thus  suddenly  turned  into  loyality,  and  learn- 
ing that  instead  of  caressing  them,  Endicott  had  called  a 
court  of  magistrates  to  apprehend  them  and  deliver  them 
over  to  the  executioner,  they  took  advantage  of  the  friendly 
disposition  manifested  towards  them  by  some  of  the  magis- 
trates and  fled  out  of  the  jurisdiction  of  that  colony,  and 
sought  a  refuge  in  New  Haven  among  the  old  and  tried  ad- 
herents of  Oliver  Cromwell.  They  passed  through  Hartford 
on  their  way  and  arrived  in  New  Haven  on  the  27th  of 
March  1661,  where  they  were  received  by  Davenport  with 
open  arms.  Davenport  entertained  them  at  his  house  with 
the  most  kindly  hospitality.  They  here  found  themselves 
among  congenial  spirits,  and  went  fearlessly  from  house  to 
house  and  discoursed  freely  of  the  thrilling  incidents  that  had 
been  crowded  into  their  lives,  and  could  be  reproduced  at 


[1661.]  THE   EOYAL   MAl^TDATE  ARRIVES,  237 

will,  divested  of  their  more  forbidding  outlines,  as  the  painter 
can  choose  the  colors  that  best  represent  to  his  eye  the  image 
that  floats,  soul-like,  in  the  atmosphere  of  his  mental  vision. 
The  sieges  of  strong  castles,  the  busy  scenes  and  earnest 
fears  that  lent  their  haggard  expression  to  the  fires  that  lit  up 
the  camp  of  civil  war ;  the  awful  details  of  the  battle  of  Dun- 
bar, that  seem  still  to  speak  in  the  tides  of  the  German  ocean 
as  they  dash  against  the  rocky  coast ;  the  imprisonment  of 
Charles  I.  at  Hampton  court;  his  escape  from  the  hands  of 
Whalley ;  his  subsequent  captivity ;  his  uncompromising 
silence  when  brought  to  trial  by  his  subjects ;  his  heroic 
death ;  the  stern  and  vigorous  policy  that  followed  that 
event;  in  short,  all  the  doublings  and  windings  of  a  self-de- 
luding ambition,  exemplified  in  the  life  of  Cromwell,  from  the 
humble  pleasures  of  agriculture  to  the  magnificent  funeral  in 
Westminster  Abbey,  afforded  them  an  inexhaustible  theme 
for  conversation  and  reflection.  They  were  grave,  sedate 
men,  and  bore  themselves  with  a  noble  self-control  and  a 
manly  cheerfulness  that  bespoke  no  secret  upbraidings  of 
conscience.  It  does  not  appear  that  they  ever  felt  any  such 
accusations  or  entertained  a  doubt  as  to  the  part  that  they 
had  taken  in  the  transactions  that  preceded  or  followed  the 
king's  death. 

Meanwhile  the  royal  mandate  reached  Massachusetts,  re- 
quiring the  governor  to  arrest  the  fugitives.  With  this 
requisition,  came  a  detailed  account  of  the  death  of  ten  of  the 
regicides,  and  of  the  disposition  of  the  court  towards  those 
who  entertained  the  survivors  who  were  excluded  from  the 
act  of  indemnity.  The  governor  and  magistrates  began  to 
be  seriously  alarmed.  They  had  already  made  a  feigned 
search  for  the  exiles,  and  failed  to  find  them,  as  it  was  ex- 
pected that  they  would  do  when  they  began.  But  now  they 
thought  it  best  to  evince  their  loyality  in  earnest.  They 
therefore  responded  to  the  requisition  by  giving  to  two  zeal- 
ous young  royalists,  Thomas  Kellond  and  Thomas  Kirk,  a 
commission  in  the  nature  of  a  special  deputation,  authorizing 
them  to  go  through  the  colonies  as  far  as  Manhattan,  and 


238  HISTOEY  OF  CONISrECTICUT. 

search  for  Whalley  and  GofFe  with  diligence.*  If  they  found 
them  they  were  ordei-ed  to  arrest  them.  Armed  with  this  paper, 
and  stimulated  with  the  prospects  of  promotion  that  they 
counted  on  as  certain  to  crown  their  success,  these  ambitious 
pursuivants  eagerly  started  in  quest  of  the  alluring  game. 

They  hastened  to  Hartford  and  waited  upon  Governor 
Winthrop,  who,  as  they  afterwards  made  report,  nobly  en- 
tertained them ;  and,  as  he  knew  that  the  judges  were  not 
within  his  jurisdiction,  he  very  readily  gave  a  warrant 
to  Kellond  and  Kirk  to  apprehend  them  within  the  Hmits  of 
Connecticut.  Winthrop  appeared  to  be  quite  earnest  in  the 
cause,  but  he  assured  them  that  "  the  colonels  made  no  stay 
in  Connecticut,  but  w'ent  directly  to  New  Haven." 

The  pursuers  took  leave  of  the  governor  and  repaired  to 
the  colon}^  of  New  Haven  with  all  dispatch.  The  next  day 
they  reached  Guilford,  where  they  stopped  to  provide  them- 
selves with  a  new  warrant ;  for  deputy  Governor  Leete 
resided  there,  who  was  then  the  acting  governor. 

They  soon  made  Leete  acquainted  with  the  object  of  their 
visit,  and  informed  him  that  they  had  good  cause  to  believe 
that  Whalley  and  GofFe  were  then  at  New  Haven.  They 
begged  him  to  give  them  a  warrant  similar  to  that  furnished 
them  by  Governor  Winthrop,  and  to  provide  them  with 
horses  to  speed  them  upon  their  journey  and  men  to  help 
them  to  make  the  arrest.  The  governor  appeared  to  be 
much  surprised  at  this  request.  He  had  not  seen  the 
colonels,  he  said,  in  nine  weeks,  and  he  did  not  believe 
they  were  at  New  Haven.  He  took  the  papers  from  the 
hands  of  the  pursuivants  and  began  to  read  them  aloud,  in  a 
tone  so  alarmingly  audible  that  their  loyalty  was  shocked, 

*  This  is  tlie  form  of  tlie  statement  made  by  Stiles,  Trumbull,  and  other  author- 
ities, and  the  mandate  from  the  king  unquestionably  ordered  the  arrest  of  the 
fugitives  wherever  they  might  be  found.  Tlie  governor  and  council  of  Massachu- 
setts however,  evidently  had  no  authority  to  commission  Kellond  and  Kirk  to 
extend  their  researches  beyond  their  own  jurisdiction.  That  this  was  so  under- 
stood by  the  pursuivants  themselves,  is  evinced  by  their  applying  to  the  governors 
of  Connecticut  and  New  Haven  for  powers  to  enable  them  to  prosecute  the  object 
of  their  mission  in  those  colonies. 


[1661.]  PUESUIVANTS  ARRIVE   AT   GUILFORD.  239 

and  they  were  obliged  to  interrupt  him,  and  let  him  know 
that  "it  was  convenient  to  be  more  private  in  such  concern- 
ments as  that  was."  He  delayed  to  furnish  them  with 
horses  in  season,  so  that  they  could  pursue  their  journey 
that  night.  The  next  day  was  the  Sabbath,  and  they  were 
obliged  to  wait  in  Guilford  until  Monday  morning,  the  13th, 
at  daybreak,* 

If  the  account  that  they  afterwards  gave  of  the  matter  is 
true,  (and  they  gave  it  under  oath,)  an  Indian  was  sent  to 
New  Haven  in  the  night,  and  no  difficulty  was  found  in 
procuring  a  horse  for  one  John  Meigs,  who  set  out  for  New 
Haven  long  before  day,  and  heralded  their  approach  with 
most  untimely  haste.  Governor  Leete  positively  refused  to 
issue  any  warrant  or  send  men  to  assist  in  making  the 
arrest,  until  he  had  consulted  the  magistrates.  In  order  to 
do  this,  it  was  necessary  that  he  should  go  to  New  Haven. 
A  wearisome  Sunday  the  pursuers  must  have  made  of  it.  It 
is  quite  likely  that  the  Indian  spoken  of  in  their  report  to 
Governor  Endicott  was  sent  off  on  Saturday  evening  to  give 
the  alarm  to  Mr.  Davenport,  who  on  Sunday  would  have  a 
favorable  opportunity  to  inform  the  people  and  put  them  on 
their  guard.  Indeed,  this  accords  so  well  with  the  statement 
of  Stiles  that  I  can  not  entertain  much  doubt  that  such  was 
the  fact.f 

*  See  Stiles,  Trumbull,  and  Bacon. 

tThe  more  I  read  President  Stiles'  History  of  the  three  judges,  the  more  I 
am  induced  to  trust  myself  to  him  as  an  authority.  His  diligence  in  searching 
out  details  and  traditionary  evidence  is  almost  without  a  parallel,  and  I  find  that 
most  of  his  conclusions  stand  the  severest  test.  He  tells  us  that  "  about  the  time 
the  pursuers  came  to  New  Haven,  and  perhaps  a  little  before^  and  to  prepare  the 
minds  of  the  people  for  their  reception,  the  Rev.  Mr.  Davenport  preached  publicly 
from  Isaiah  xvi.  3,  4."  Now  if  the  report  of  Kellond  and  Kirk  is  correct,  that 
they  reached  Guilford  on  the  11th  and  New  Haven  on  the  13th,  and  if  the  12th 
was  Sunday,  which,  as  Dr.  Bacon  says,  is  "  found  to  be  true  by  actual  calcula- 
tion," what  time  could  have  been  more  suitable  than  that  12th  of  May  for  the 
preaching  of  such  a  discourse  ?  The  pursuivants  must  therefore  have  spent  two 
nights  and  one  day  at  Guilford,  and  to  make  sure  that  Mr.  Davenport  had  notice 
of  their  coming,  Meigs,  the  second  messenger,  was  probably  sent  off  before  day- 
break on  Monday  morning. 


240  HISTORY   OP  CONNECTICUT. 

At  beat  of  drum  the  worshipers  assembled  as  usual  to 
listen  to  the  teachings  of  their  patriarch.  The  alarming  in- 
telligence that  the  pursuers  were  near,  was  probably  whis- 
pered at  the  outer  door  of  the  meeting-house,  in  the  ears  of 
some  of  the  principal  men,  if  indeed  it  did  not  interrupt  for 
a  moment  the  grave  tranquillity  of  the  puritan  Sabbath  as 
it  circulated  among  the  people  as  they  met.  However,  they 
would  soon  become  composed — hushed,  indeed,  as  statues 
long  before  the  presence  of  the  Supreme  God  was  invoked. 
From  what  we  know  of  the  earnest  character  of  the  audi- 
tory, we  may  safely  conclude  that  the  silence  of  death 
reigned  throughout  the  humble  edifice,  and  that  all  eyes 
were  fastened  upon  the  face  of  the  speaker — all  ears  thrilled 
to  the  tones  of  his  voice,  as  he  gave  out  his  text  from  the 
XVIth  chapter  of  Isaiah,  verses  3  and  4 :  "  Take  counsel, 
execute  judgment,  make  thy  shadow  as  the  night  in  the 
midst  of  noon-day ;  hide  the  outcasts,  bewray  not  him  that 
wandereth.  Let  mine  outcasts  dwell  with  thee ;  Moab,  be 
thou  a  covert  to  them  from  the  face  of  the  spoiler." 

I  have  not  found  upon  the  pages  of  history,  a  better  ex- 
ample of  moral  courage  thwarting  the  purposes  of  vindictive 
power,  than  the  one  afforded  by  this  brave  old  clergyman 
upon  the  remote  confines  of  the  British  empire  calling  upon 
the  subjects  of  that  empire  who  were  gathered  around  him, 
to  resist  for  the  sake  of  mercy,  the  vengeance  of  their  king. 

Kellond  and  Kirk,  as  early  on  Monday  morning  as  they 
found  it  practicable,  rode  into  New  Haven.  They  were  not 
received  with  much  cordiality  by  the  inhabitants.  In  mo- 
mentary expectation  of  the  arrival  of  Governor  Leete,  they 
were  obliged  to  wait  about  two  hours  before  his  excellency 
came.  They  then  again  pressed  their  demand  for  a  warrant, 
as  they  said  they  had  received  information  that  convinced 
them  that  the  regicides  were  still  in  New  Haven.  The  gov- 
ernor said  he  did  not  believe  they  were  in  New  Haven. 
The  young  gentlemen  then  begged  that  he  would  empower 
them  to  arrest  the  judges  or  order  others  to  do  it.  Leete 
replied,  that  "he  could  not  and  would  not  make  them  magis- 


[1661.]  PUESUIVANTS  IN  NEW  HAVEK  241 

trates."  They  then  said  if  he  would  enable  them  to  do  it, 
they  would  themselves  make  search  in  two  houses  where 
they  had  reason  to  suppose  that  the  regicides  lay  hid.  The 
governor  then  told  them  that  he  could  take  no  steps  in  the 
matter  until  he  had  called  the  freemen  together. 

The  pursuivants  were  very  much  exasperated,  and  set 
before  him  in  a  strong  light  the  dangers  that  he  was  bringing 
upon  himself  and  upon  the  colony  of  New  Haven  by  his 
delay.  They  further  told  him,  that  they  did  not  doubt,  from 
his  reluctance  to  aid  in  the  arrest,  he  was  willing  that 
the  traitors  should  escape.  This  remark  seemed  to  make  an 
impression  upon  him,  for  he  soon  after  convened  the  magis- 
trates and  remained  in  consultation  with  them — so  weighty 
was  the  business — for  a  period  of  five  or  six  hours.  The 
council  at  length  came  to  the  conclusion  that  it  was  neces- 
sary to  call  a  general  court.  Again  the  pursuers  remonstra- 
ted. They  reminded  the  governor  how  striking  was  the 
contrast  between  his  conduct  and  that  of  the  governors  of 
Massachusetts  and  Connecticut,  who,  with  the  alacrity  of 
faithful  subjects,  had  hastened  to  issue  their  warrants  in  obe- 
dience to  the  king's  mandate ;  they  warned  him  against  the 
horrible  crime  of  aiding  and  abetting  traitors  and  regicides, 
and  ended  by  putting  to  him  the  pertinent  question,  "whether 
he  would  obey  the  king  or  no  in  this  affair."  "  We  honor 
his  majesty,"  replied  Leete,  "but  we  have  tender  con- 
sciences." Enraged  at  this  answer,  the  young  men  told 
him  that  they  believed  he  knew  where  the  outlaws  were. 
This  remark,  implying  a  charge  of  high  treason,  led  the 
governor  and  magistrates  into  another  long  consultation, 
that  lasted  two  or  three  hours. 

In  the  evening,  Leete  came  to  the  head  of  the  stairs  of  the 
little  inn  where  the  applicants  lodged,  and  taking  one  of 
them  by  the  hand,  told  him  with  the  greatest  simpHcity  of 
manner,  that  "  he  wished  he  had  been  a  plowman,  and  had 
never  been  in  office,  since  he  found  it  so  weighty." 

"  Will  you  own  his  majesty  or  no  ?"  asked  the  pur- 
suivants. 

16 


242  HISTORY  OF  CONNECTICUT. 

"  We  would  first  know  whether  his  majesty  would  own 
us,"  was  the  guarded  answer. 

Thus  baflSied  by  the  authorities  and  overawed  by  the 
people,  Kellond  and  Kirk  hastened  out  of  the  colony  of  New 
Haven  without  having  dared  to  search  a  solitary  house. 
They  repaired  to  Manhadoes,  where  Stuyvesant  received 
them  with  great  politeness,  and  promised  to  aid  them  in 
arresting  the  fugitives  if  they  could  be  found  in  his  jurisdic- 
tion.    Soon  after,  they  went  back  to  Boston  * 

Let  us  now  return  to  the  exiles.  It  is  quite  probable  that 
they  were  at  the  house  of  Mr.  Davenport  until  Saturday 
night,  (the  11th  of  May,)  when  the  Indian  messenger  arrived 
from  Guilford,  for  it  appears  that  they  fled  from  the  town 
that  night,  and  spent  at  least  a  part  of  it  at  a  mill  situated  in 
the  woods  two  miles  north-west  of  New  Haven.  Here  they 
lay  concealed  until  the  13th,  when  Mr.  Jones  with  Burrill 
and  Sperry  visited  them,  and,  probably  while  those  protracted 
consultations  were  going  on  at  New  Haven  between  the 
governor  and  the  magistrates,  conducted  them  to  the  house 
of  Sperry,  still  another  mile  farther  off  from  New  Haven. 
They  here  provided  them  a  place  that  has  ever  since  been 
called  "  Hatchet  Harbor,"  where  they  lodged  two  nights,  and 
on  the  15th  of  the  monthf  went  to  a  cave  upon  the  moun- 
tain called  by  them  Providence  Hill,  but  since  known  as 
West  Rock,  as  the  cave  that  sheltered  the  regicides  still 
bears  the  name  of  "  Judges'  Cave."  Upon  the  very  summit 
of  this  mountain,  and  towering  about  twenty  feet  above  it, 
on  a  base  not  more  than  forty  feet  square,  stood  an  irregular 
cluster  of  pillars  of  trap-rock  like  a  clump  of  ti'ees.  They 
had  been  upheaved  in  some  strong  convulsion  of  nature,  and 
seemed  very  properly  to  typify  the  fiery  billows  of  revolu- 
tion that  had  drifted  those  sorrow-stricken  men  to  take 
refuge  from  the  strength  of  the  returning  surf  by  clinging 
to  their  gray  sides.     These  rocks,   at  some  distance  from 

*  A  copy  of  the  official  report  of  Kellond  and  Kirk  may  be  found  iu  Stiles'  His- 
tory of  the  Judges,  pp.  52,  56.     It  bears  date  "Boston,  May  29,  1661." 
t  This  is  the  date  as  given  in  GofFe's  Journal ;  see  Stiles,  p.  77. 


[1661.]     THE   JUDGES   FRIGHTEISrED   FROM  THE   CAVE.  243 

each  other  upon  the  ground,  slanted  inwards  towards  a  com- 
naon  center  at  the  top,  thus  forming  an  irregular  chamber, 
that  could,  by  closing  the  outer  apertures  with  the  boughs  of 
trees,  be  made  habitable  but  not  comfortable  for  two  or  three 
persons.*  In  this  forbidding  spot,  with  no  companions  but 
the  wild  animals,  whose  voices  startled  them  from  their 
sleep  at  night,  and  surrounded  by  such  forest  trees  as  could 
find  a  footing  in  the  barren  soil,  they  lived  until  the  11th  of 
June.f  Sperry  sometimes  carried  them  food  himself,  and 
sometimes  sent  one  of  his  sons,  who  left  it  upon  the  stump 
of  a»  tree  that  was  pointed  out  to  him,  and  who,  with  the 
superstitious  wonder  of  childhood,  in  vain  demanded  of  his 
father  why  the  basins  that  he  had  carried  there  filled  with 
provisions  were  found  empty  at  his  next  visit,  and  why  he 
was  sent  upon  this  mysterious  errand. 

"  There  is  somebody  at  work  in  the  woods  who  wants  the 
food,"  was  the  unsatisfactory  reply. 

This  desolate  mountain  was,  as  I  Ijave  said,  the  haunt  of 
wild  beasts.  One  night,  as  the  regicides  lay  in  bed,  they  saw 
a  panther  or  catamount  thrust  its  head  into  the  mouth  of  the 
cave.  Its  blazing  eyeballs  and  unearthly  cry  so  frightened 
the  inmates,  that  one  of  them  fled  down  the  mountain  to 
Sperry 's  house,  where  he  gave  the  alarm.  This  intruder, 
terrible  to  men  who  had  proved  themselves  to  possess  true 
courage  when  man  meets  man  upon  the  battle-field,  drove 
them  from  the  cave. J 

It  is  impossible  that  I  should  follow  these  outlawed  men 
in  all  their  painful  wanderings  to  elude  the  vigilance  of  their 
pursuers.  Tradition  still  points  out  many  places  along  the 
coast  where  they  lingered,  sometimes  for  a  night  and  some- 
times for  a  longer  period,  as  best  accorded  with  their  real  or 
fancied  security.  Sometimes  they  appear  to  have  been 
alarmed  for  the  safety  of  those  who  had  protected  them,  and 
rather  than  bring  them  into  difficulty,  they  resolved  more 

*  An  engraved  view  of  the  "  Judges'  Caves"  may  be  found  in  Barber's  Hist. 
CoU.ofConn.,  p.  151. 

+  Goffe's  Journal.         i  Stiles,  p.  75. 


244  HISTORY  OF  CONNECTICUT. 

than  once  to  surrender  themselves,  and  would  have  done  so 
but  for  the  solicitations  of  those  in  whose  behalf  they  pro- 
posed to  make  the  sacrifice. 

Some  time  between  the  11th  of  June,  when  they  left  the 
cave,  and  the  20th  of  the  same  month,  they  went  to  Guil- 
ford with  a  view  of  delivering  themselves  up  to  Governor 
Leete.  The  walls  of  the  cellar  are  still  standing,  and  may 
be  expected  to  last  another  hundred  years,  where  tradition 
informs  us  that  they  lodged,  unseen  by  the  governor  though 
fed  from  his  table,  while  the  negotiations  relative  to  their 
submission  were  going  on.  It  appears  that  they  desired  to 
yield  themselves  up  in  order  to  save  Mr.  Davenport,  who 
resisted  it  with  his  usual  fearlessness  and  magnanimity. 
Endicott,  who  had  dared  to  cut  the  cross  from  the  king's 
banner,  quailed  before  the  royal  mandate,  Davenport  alone 
remained, 

"  Like  TeiierifFe  or  Atlas,  unremoved." 

While  at  Guilford,  the  regicides  also  lodged  at  the  house  of 
Mr.  Rossiter. 

From  their  various  retreats  in  the  woods  they  repaired 
to  the  house  of  a  Mr.  Tompkins  in  Milford.  In  this  house 
they  remained  in  the  most  perfect  concealment  for  two 
years.  They  had  a  private  room  devoted  to  them,  and  did 
not  so  much  as  venture  to  walk  out  into  the  orchard.  The 
honorable  Robert  Treat,  Benjamin  Fenn,  and  the  clergy- 
man, Mr.  Roger  Newton,  were  in  the  secret,  often  visited 
them,  and  afforded  them  such  consolation  and  support  as 
their  forlorn  situation  demanded.  The  manly,  sympathetic 
nature  of  Robert  Treat  needed  only  to  know  that  they  were 
friendless  and  sorrowful.  A  single  grasp  of  his  hand,  a 
glance  at  his  gallant  face,  was  enough  to  assure  the  regicides 
that  their  secrets  were  safely  lodged  with  him. 

We  are  not  to  infer  from  the  solitude  and  the  dangers 
that  all  the  while  threatened  the  regicides,  that  they  were 
the  victims  of  moping  melancholy.  On  the  other  hand, 
though  they  behaved  with  a  dignity  worthy  of  their  former 
position,  they    beguiled    the    time    not   only  with   pleasant 


[1664.]  THE  JUDGES  REMOVE   TO   HADLET.  245 

conversation,  but  often  with  that  gamesome  merriment  that 
is  so  strangely  allied  to  misery.  During  their  stay  at  Mil- 
ford,  there  was  brought  over  from  England  a  ballad  written 
by  some  hair-brained  cavalier  rhymer,  placing  the  regicides 
in  such  a  ludicrous  light  that  a  loyalist  might  be  excused  for 
laughing  or  a  puritan  for  biting  his  lip  at  the  recital  of  it. 
This  ballad,  a  girl  who  was  an  inmate  of  Mr.  Tompkins' 
family,  or  who  was  in  the  habit  of  visiting  the  house,  had  com- 
mitted to  memory  and  had  learned  to  sing  it,  which  she 
happened  to  do  in  the  chamber  above  the  room  occupied  by 
the  judges.  They  were  so  delighted  with  the  song  that  they 
used  to  beg  their  host  to  have  it  repeated  by  the  young 
ladies  of  the  family,  who  little  knew  what  an  interested 
auditory  had  been  provided  for  them.* 

On  the  arrival  of  the  commissioners  in  1664,  and  when  it 
became  known  that  they  were  charged  among  other  things 
with  the  arrest  of  the  judges,  their  friends  were  again 
alarmed  for  their  safety,  and  it  was  thought  best  that  they 
should  leave  Milford  for  some  new  place  of  concealment. 
Accordingly,  on  the  13th  of  October,  1664,  they  set  out  for 
Hadley,  then  a  frontier  town  in  Massachusetts,  a  hundred 
miles  from  Milford,  and  so  remote  from  Boston,  Hartford 
and  New  Haven,  that  it  did  not  seem  probable  that  their 
presence  in  such  a  place  would  be  suspected.  They  traveled 
only  by  night,  and  lay  still  during  the  day  in  some  shady 
nook  in  the  woods,  or  by  the  bank  of  a  brook  where  the 
murmuring  of  the  water  invited  them  to  repose.  These 
stopping-places  they  called  Harbors.  The  locality  of  one  of 
them  is  still  pointed  out  at  the  now  flourishing  village  of 
Meriden,  that  yet  retains  the  name  of  Pilgrim's  Harbor. 
They  reached  Hadley  in  safety,  and  there  they  were  secreted 
in  the  house  of  the  Rev.  John  Russell,  in  a  secret  chamber, 
probably  until  they  died.  They  kept  a  diary  of  the  most 
minute  events  that  transpired,  probably  more  to  amuse  them- 
selves than  for  any  historical  purpose.     This  journal  was  in 

*  See  Stiles,  whose  facts  and  dates  I  have  generally  followed  in  tracing  the 
history  of  the  judges  after  their  arrival  in  New  England. 


246  HISTOEY  OF  CONNECTICUT. 

the  handwriting  of  Goffe.  Indeed,  Whalley  became  infirm 
not  long  after  his  removal  to  Hadley,  and  from  what  I  can 
glean  from  the  tender  expressions  in  regard  to  him  that  I 
find  in  Goffe's  letters,  I  have  no  doubt  that  he  became  de- 
mented some  time  before  his  death,  that  is  supposed  to  have 
happened  in  the  year  1678. 

Noble  tells  us  that  the  Whalleys  are  of  great  antiquity. 
They  were  a  very  proud  family,  and  were  royalists.  Upon 
the  breaking  out  of  the  civil  wars,  Edward  Whalley,  who 
had  been  brought  up  to  merchandise,  in  opposition  to  the 
wishes  of  his  family  took  up  arms  in  behalf  of  the  people.  At 
the  battle  of  Naseby,  in  1645,  he  fought  with  unparalleled 
bravery.  He  charged  and  defeated  two  divisions  of  Lang- 
dale's  horse,  supported  as  they  were  by  that  fiery  cavalier. 
Prince  Rupert,  who  commanded  the  reserve.  For  his  heroic 
bravery  on  that  occasion,  he  was  made  by  the  parliament  a 
colonel  of  horse.  He  also  commanded  the  horse  at  the  siege 
of  Bristol,  when  Prince  Rupert  surrendered  up  the  city.* 
He  was  never  popular  with  the  more  fanatical  of  the  Inde- 
pendents, who  hated  him  for  his  aristocratic  bearing,  and 
envied  him  for  his  success.  At  the  head  of  his  accusers 
was  that  wolfish  radical,  Hugh  Peters,  who  charged  him  with 
being  a  Presbyterian — a  compliment  that  Whalley  threatened 
to  reciprocate  by  caning  him.f 

When  Charles  I.  fell  into  Cromwell's  hands,  he  committed 
him  to  the  keeping  of  Whalley,J  who  was  charged  by  some 
of  the  more  zealous  loyalists  with  severity  towards  his  royal 
prisoner.  But  this  falsehood  the  king  had  the  generosity  to 
deny  in  a  letter  written  to  Whalley  after  his  escape. 

While  Charles  was  still  in  custody  at  Hampton  Court, 
Captain  Sayers  waited  on  his  majesty  to  give  back  the  en- 
signs of  the  order  of  the  garter  that  had  belonged  to  the 
Prince  of  Orange.  Whalley  felt  it  to  be  his  duty  to  inter- 
pose to  prevent  a  private  interview,  when  the  king,  in  a  fit 
of  rage,  pushed  him  away  with  both  his  hands.     But  this 

*  Noble's  "  House  of  Cromwell,"  ii,  143,  144 ;  Camden, 
t  Noble,  ii.  144.        t  Carlyle,  i.  234,  235. 


WHALLEY  AND   GOFFE.  247 

passion  was  only  momentary.  Indeed,  the  gallantry  and 
courtly  demeanor  of  Whalley  could  not  fail  to  win  upon  the 
affections  of  the  king. 

At  the  terrible  battle  of  Dunbar,  Whalley,  with  Monk,  com- 
manded the  foot  forces,  and  had  two  horses  shot  under  him.* 

In  1656  he  was  created  a  lord,  and  appears  to  have  plumed 
himself  not  a  little  upon  his  accession  to  a  dignity  that  was 
much  ridiculed  by  the  king's  faction.  Colonel  Ashfield,  who 
knew  that  Whalley's  principles  would  not  allow  him  to  en- 
gage in  a  duel,  and  who  was  aware  of  the  keenness  of  his 
sensibilities  and  the  suddenness  of  his  temper,  took  occasion 
to  speak  in  the  hearing  of  the  new  dignitary  in  slighting  and 
very  pointed  terms  of  Cromwell's  House  of  Lords.  Whalley 
was  so  angry  that  he  threatened  to  treat  him  as  he  had  pro- 
posed to  deal  with  Peters,  and  doubtless  would  have  been  as 
good  as  his  word  had  the  insult  been  repeated. f  With  the 
exception  of  a  hot  temper  and  those  lively  bubbles  of  vanity 
that  float  upon  the  surface  of  almost  every  sparkling  char- 
acter, there  was  not  a  more  noble  nature  in  the  world  than 
that  of  Edward  Whalley.  His  talents  as  a  civilian  were 
highly  respectable  ;  as  a  soldier,  he  was  almost  unrivaled  in 
that  age  of  military  renown. 

He  married  a  sister  of  Sir  George  Middleton,  that  bitter 
enemy  of  Charles  I.  and  ardent  friend  of  Charles  II.  Their 
daughter  married  General  Goffe,  and  became  the  mother  of 
a  numerous  family. 

Major  General  William  Goffe  was  a  son  of  the  Rev.  Ste- 
phen Goffe,  rector  of  Stanmar,  in  Sussex.  Like  Whalley, 
he  drew  his  swoi'd  against  the  king  in  the  civil  wars,  and 
threw  away  the  scabbard.  He  very  early  distinguished 
himself,  and  was  first  made  a  quarter-master,  then  a  colonel 
of  foot,  and  afterwards  a  general.  He  commanded  Crom- 
well's regiment  at  the  battle  of  Dunbar,  as  appears  from  the 
following  extract  from  one  of  Cromwell's  dispatches: — "For 
my  own  regiment,  under  command  of  Lieut.  Col.  Goffe,  and 
my  Major  White,  did  come  seasonably  in,  and,  at  the  push 
*  Carlyle,  ii.  471.         t  Noble,  ii.  153. 


248  HISTORY  OF  C02^NECTICUT. 

of  the  pike,  did  repel  the  stoutest  regiment  the  enemy  had 
there."*  He  was  elected  a  member  of  parliament ;  he  aided 
in  the  accusation  of  the  eleven  members  ;  he  sat  in  judgment 
upon  the  king,  and  signed  the  warrant  for  his  execution. 
He  also  helped  White  in  the  difficult  task  of  purging  the  par- 
liament of  those  members  who  could  not  be  made  to  subserve 
the  purposes  of  Cromwell,  and  for  this  he  received  the  ap- 
pointment of  major-general.  To  crown  his  honors  he  was 
created  a  member  of  Cromwell's  House  of  Lords.  He  re- 
mained faithful  to  the  interests  of  the  protectorate  after  the 
death  of  Oliver,  and  signed  the  order  for  proclaiming  Richard 
as  his  successor.  Monk  knew  his  uncompromising  nature, 
and  would  not  admit  him  into  his  secrets  or  treat  with  him 
as  the  emissary  of  the  army.  His  great  popularity,  his  bold- 
ness, his  courage,  his  comprehensive  intellect,  the  colossal 
proportions  of  his  character ;  above  all,  his  disinterestedness, 
made  him  a  dangerous  neighbor  to  royalty,  and  especially  to 
the  house  of  Stuart.f 

Some  of  the  letters  written  by  Mrs.  GofFe  to  her  husband 
are  very  beautiful,  and  evince  a  delicacy  of  sentiment  and  a 
depth  of  affection  that  reflect  honor  upon  the  character  of 
both.  She  wrote  under  an  assumed  name,  and  Goffe  ad- 
dressed her  as  "  Mother  Goldsmith."  In  one  of  these  letters 
she  writes : — "  My  dear,  I  know  you  are  confident  of  my 
affection,  yet  give  me  leave  to  tell  thee,  thou  art  as  dear  to 
me  as  a  husband  can  be  to  a  wife,  and  if  I  knew  any  thing 
that  I  could  do  to  make  thee  happy,  I  should  do  it,  if  the 
Lord  would  permit,  though  to  the  loss  of  my  life." 

I  do  not  know,  in  all  the  range  of  female  correspondence,  a 
more  wife-like  and  transparent  sentiment,  nor  one  more 
charmingly  expressed.  Crowns  compress  the  brows  of  those 
who  wear  them  into  wrinkles,  and  the  fruit  of  ambition  but 
too  often  blisters  the  tongue  of  him  who  eats  it,  but  the  love 
of  such  a  woman  is  immortal  and  holy  as  the  amaranth 
that  blooms  in  paradise.  Now  listen  to  the  wife  and  mother 
both  in  one. 

*  Carlyle,  i.  470.         t  Stiles,  l.'j. 


MRS.   GOFFE.  249 

"  Frederick,  with  such  of  the  dear  babes  as  can  speak,  pre- 
sent their  humble  duty  to  thee,  talk  much  of  thee,  and  long 
to  see  thee."* 

When  we  consider  that  these  letters  were  written  with 
the  full  consciousness  that  they  whom  God  had  joined  to- 
gether would  never  again  look  upon  each  other's  faces,  they 
assume  a  hallowed  character,  as  if  they  were  the  fond,  un- 
availing words  of  a  survivor,  muttered  half  in  hope  and  half 
in  resignation  over  the  ashes  of  the  dead. 

"  Let  us  comfort  ourselves  with  this,"  says  this  noble  Eng- 
lish matron,  "  though  we  shall  never  meet  in  this  world  again, 
yet  I  hope,  through  grace,  we  shall  meet  in  heaven. "f 

This  lady  and  Mrs.  Godolphin,  of  a  lineage  scarcely  better, 
— for  the  Middletons  were  a  noble  family,  and  Mrs.  GofFe's 
grandfather,  Sir  Henry  Cromwell, J  entertained  kings  in  al- 
most royal  state  at  Hinchinbrook, — are  among  the  few 
women  whose  names  have  come  down  to  us  from  the  days 
of  the  second  Charles,  whom  we  regard  with  honor  and  rev- 
erence as  giving  promise  then  of  that  change  in  the  social  con- 
dition of  their  sex  that  is  the  boast  of  our  age  ;  a  change  that 
has  added  a  new  link,  and  one  of  the  brightest,  in  the  chain 
of  evidence  that  establishes  the  efficacy  and  vitality  of  the 
Christian  faith. 

I  shall  give  a  brief  sketch  of  the  other  regicide  who  availed 
himself  of  our  hospitality,  and  then  I  shall  leave  this  interest- 
ing topic  to  be  handled  with  more  minuteness  by  some  writer 
who  has  greater  ability  to  treat  of  it,  and  more  leisure  for  the 
task. 

*  Noble,  i.  p.  624.         t  Noble,  i.  425. 

i  The  story  that  was  circulated  during  the  civil  wars,  and  long  afterwards,  that 
the  Cromwells  were  of  low  descent,  was  one  of  the  most  shameless  falsehoods  that 
ever  gained  credit  with  the  woi'ld.  The  ignorance  or  bigotry  of  that  man  who 
could  believe  such  a  thing  in  this  age,  ought  to  make  him  a  conspicuous  object. 
In  verification  of  this  remark,  the  reader  is  referred  to  the  Rev.  Mark  Noble's 
"  House  of  Cromwell,"  a  work  written  by  a  gentleman  allied  in  feeling  and  in 
faith  to  the  Church  of  England,  whose  minister  he  was,  and  who  was  not  likely  to 
lavish  praise  upon  that  family  where  it  was  not  due.  Why  Carlyle  has  spoken  in 
such  unkind  terms  of  this  author  I  can  not  say.  Noble  has  at  least  the  merit  of 
writing  English. 


250  HISTOEY   OF   CONNECTICUT. 

Colonel  John  Dixwell,  of  the  pi^iory  of  Folkstone,  in  the 
county  of  Kent,  belonged  to  the  landed  gentry  of  England, 
and  was  possessed  of  a  manor  and  several  other  estates  of 
value.  He  was  the  uncle  and  guardian  of  Sir  Basil  Dix- 
well. He  was  not  one  of  those  discontented  spirits  who 
desire  political  changes  for  the  chances  of  promotion,  but 
could  make  his  election  whether  he  would  live  upon  his 
estates  and  pass  his  time  in  the  elegant  pursuit  of  letters,  that 
offered  so  many  attractions  to  a  gentleman  of  his  tastes,  or 
whether  he  would  engage  in  more  stirring  scenes.  He  pre- 
ferred action  to  repose,  and  took  up  arms  in  the  popular 
cause.  He  soon  distinguished  himself,  and  was  an  officer  in 
the  army  before  and  during  the  protectorate.  He  bore  the 
rank  of  Colonel.  He  was  a  member  of  parliament  for  Kent, 
sheriff  of  that  county,  and  in  1649  was  one  of  the  king's  judges. 

At  the  Restoration  he  is  supposed  to  have  left  England,  but 
whither  he  fled,  and  what  ministering  angels  supplied  him 
with  food,  are  secrets  that  have  long  since  passed  into 
oblivion.  As  appears  by  an  entry  made  in  the  lost  journal 
of  Goffe,  he  visited  his  brother  regicides,  during  their  resi- 
dence at  Hadley,  in  February,  1665.  Hutchinson  informs 
us  that  he  lived  at  Hadley  for  several  years.  This  may  be 
correct,  but  his  granddaughter,  Mrs.  Caruthers,  always  be- 
lieved that  he  only  remained  there  six  weeks.  Thence  he 
again  wandered  we  know  not  whither,  and  secreted  himself 
we  know  not  where,  until,  under  the  assumed  name  of  James 
Davids,  he  took  up  his  abode  at  New  Haven.  What  year 
he  first  came  to  New  Haven  is  not  known ;  but  it  must  have 
been  before  1672,  for  he  assisted  in  the  settlement  of  Mr. 
Ling's  estate  in  1673,  and  he  had  boarded  in  Ling's  fam- 
ily for  some  time  previous  to  the  decease  of  his  host.  It 
was  generally  understood  by  the  inhabitants  that  Davids 
was  not  the  name  of  the  retiring  and  quiet  stranger  who 
had  thus  come  among  them,  but  they  seem  to  have  pre- 
ferred to  remain  in  ignorance  upon  a  subject  that  might 
have  given  trouble  both  to  him  and  to  themselves.  He  was 
known  to  Governor  Jones,  Mr.  Street,  Mr.  Bishop,  and  a 


COLONEL  DIXWELL.  251 

few  other  gentlemen  who  could  safely  be  trusted  with  the 
secret ;  but  to  none  so  intimately  as  to  the  Rev.  James  Pier- 
pont,  who  became  the  settled  minister  at  New  Haven  in 
1685.  Between  these  two  congenial  spirits  there  existed 
the  most  faithful  friendship,  until  it  was  terminated  by  the 
death  of  Dixwell.  Their  lots  joined,  and  they  were  in  the 
habit  of  meeting  at  the  fence  and  holding  long  and  secret 
interviews  together,  until  we  are  told  that  there  was  a  worn 
footpath  leading  from  their  respective  houses  to  the  place  of 
conference.  The  attention  of  Mrs.  Pierpont  was  arrested  by 
this  growing  and  secret  intimacy,  and  she  could  not  forbear 
asking  her  husband  what  he  saw  in  that  old  man,  that  should 
make  him  so  attractive.  "  He  is  a  very  knowing  and  learned 
man,"  Mr.  Pierpont  would  reply. 

While  Sir  Edmund  Andross  was  in  America,  he  visited 
Connecticut  several  times  upon  an  errand  not  very  vi'elcome 
to  the  people ;  and  probably  in  the  course  of  the  year  1686 
he  spent  a  Sunday  at  New  Haven  and  attended  public  wor- 
ship. Sir  Edmund  was  a  soldier,  and  had  an  extensive 
knowledge  of  the  world.  His  practiced  eye  rested  upon 
the  erect  figure  and  high  features  of  the  regicide,  with  an 
earnest  gaze.  His  curiosity  was  awakened.  There  was  in 
the  venerable  man  before  him,  a  presence  and  bearing  that 
spoke  of  other  scenes  than  those  that  then  surrounded  him. 
Not  only  did  he  appear  to  possess  sterling  traits  of  character, 
but  it  was  evident  that  he  had  been  a  soldier.  When  the 
services  were  over.  Sir  Edmund  made  inquiry  after  this 
mysterious  man.  "Who  is  he,  and  what  is  his  occupation?" 
he  asked  of  one  of  the  worshipers. 

"  He  is  a  merchant  who  resides  in  town." 

Sir  Edmund  Andross  shook  his  head — "  I  know  that  he  is 
not  a  merchant"  replied  he,  peremptorily. 

Mr.  Davids  was  not  present  at  the  afternoon  service ! 

It  would  give  me  pleasure  to  trace  more  in  detail  the 
habits  of  Colonel  Dixwell,  and  to  speak  more  fully  of  his 
intercourse  with  his  reverend  friend,  who  was  worthy  to  be 
the  confidant  of  such  an  exile,   and  who  was   present  to 


252  HISTORY   OF   CONNECTICUT. 

support  him  with  his  countenance  and  strength  in  his  last 
hour. 

He  died  in  March,  1689,  in  the  82d  year  of  his  age.  His 
remains  rest  in  New  Haven,  and  are  in  the  keeping  of  those 
who  honor  his  memory.  Where  are  the  graves  of  Whalley 
and  Goffe  ?  Do  they,  too,  slumber  in  the  same  soil  ?  Or 
are  the  bones  of  Whalley  still  at  Hadley,  and  did  Goffe  wan- 
der away  and  die  in  a  southern  clime  ? 

I  believe  that  they  all  sleep  together,  but  I  will  leave  the 
antiquarian  to  settle  this  delicate  question,  if  indeed  he  can 
add  any  thing  to  what  Stiles*  has  written.  I  must  bid  adieu 
to  the  Regicides. 

*  I  will  here  put  upon  record  a  little  anecdote  told  me  by  a  venerable  graduate 
of  Yale  College,  that  may  serve  to  illustrate  at  once  the  manners  of  President 
Stiles,  and  the  reverence  with  which  he  was  regarded  by  the  students.  "  I  knew 
him  well,"  said  my  informant,  "and  honored  him,  for  1  hardly  dared  to  love  him. 
He  was  small  in  stature,  but  when  he  came  up  the  chapel  aisle,  and  bowed  to  the 
right  and  left  as  we  all  stood  up  to  receive  him,  he  filled  up  the  space  so  that  you 
could  not  put  an  eighteen-pence  between  him  and  the  pews !" 


CHAPTER  XII. 

KING  PHILIP'S  WAE. 

When  Colonel  Nichols  found  himself  master  of  the  Dutch 
settlement,  he  entered  upon  the  duties  of  his  government 
and  took  up  his  abode  in  New  York.  The  other  commis- 
sioners proceeded  to  Boston  and  prosecuted  their  labors  with 
vigor.  They  first  made  known  their  instructions  to  the  gen- 
eral court,  and  gave  them  a  statement  of  what  would  be 
required  of  them,  that  could  not  fail  to  surprise  them,  as  it 
contained  many  things  inconsistent  with  the  provisions  of  the 
charter  of  that  colony.  They  also  insisted  on  a  greater  de- 
gree of  toleration  in  ecclesiastical  matters  than  the  court  was 
wiUing  to  concede.*  The  commissioners  also  set  at  defiance 
all  the  known  rules  of  making  contracts  with  the  Indians, 
and  went  so  far  as  to  declare  that  the  deed  obtained  by  the 
people  of  Rhode  Island  was  void  for  some  trifling  informality. 
They  further  decided  that  Atherton's  deed  of  the  large  tract 
that  he  had  bought  in  the  Narragansett  country,  east  of 
Pawcatuck  river,  was  invalid,  as  there  was  no  specified  sum 
named  in  it  as  a  consideration.  These  peremptory  gentle- 
men also  held  courts  in  Warwick  and  Southerton,  and 
attempted  to  make  a  new  province  independent  of  the  col- 
onies. This  anomalous  dependency  upon  the  crown,  insti- 
tuted without  a  shadow  of  authority,  was  named  by  them  the 
"King's  Province."  It  embraced  the  entire  Narragansett 
country,  and  extended  westward  to  the  Pawcatuck  river, 
and  northward  to  the  southern  line  of  Massachusetts. t 

*  Among  the  propositions  made  by  the  commissioners  to  the  Plymouth  jurisdic- 
tion was  this : — "  That  all  men  and  women  of  orthodox  opinions,  competent 
estates,  knowledge,  civil  lives  and  not  scandalous,  may  be  admitted  to  the  sacra- 
ment of  the  Lord's  Supper,  and  their  children  to  baptism."     Hutchinson,  i.  214. 
+  Trumbull,  i.  315. 


254:  HISTORY   OF   CONNECTICUT. 

When  they  had  made  an  end  of  this  extraordinary  mission 
to  the  Narragansett  country,  they  returned  to  Boston,  and  in 
defiance  of  the  Massachusetts  charter,  proceeded  to  exercise 
a  jurisdiction  there  over  all  matters  that  did  not  accord  with 
their  views.  The  general  court  remonstrated  against  such 
arbitrary  conduct,  and  thereby  so  offended  the  commissioners 
that  they  represented  the  colony  to  the  king  in  a  very  un- 
favorable light.* 

Connecticut,  on  the  other  hand,  with  her  boundary  lines, 
as  she  thought,  forever  settled,  and  her  old  troubles  with  New 
Haven  and  the  Dutch  brought  to  a  close,  and  enjoying  a 
large  measure  of  the  king's  favor,  went  forward  with  smiling 
prospects  to  perfect  her  civil  organization,  and  to  plant  new 
germs  of  population  and  strength  in  the  unoccupied  portions 
of  her  domain. 

At  the  general  assembly  held  in  May  1666,  it  was  enacted 
that  the  towns  upon  the  river,  from  the  north  bounds  of  Wind- 
sor, with  Farmington,  to  Thirty  Mile  Island,  should  be  a 
county  to  be  called  the  county  of  Hartford  ;  that  the  country 
from  Pawcatuck  river  with  Norwich,  to  the  west  bounds  of 
Hammonassett,  should  constitute  another  county,  to  be  called 
New  London ;  and  that  the  large  territory  from  the  eastern 
bounds  of  Stratford  to  the  western  boundary  of  the  colony, 
should  be  known  as  the  county  of  Fairfield,  f 

For  about  three  years  a  settlement  had  been  made  on  the 
eastern  bank  of  the  Connecticut  opposite  Saybrook,  before  it 
was  thought  large  enough  for  incorporation.  But  in  the 
spring  of  1667,  when  the  general  assembly  met,  the  settle- 
ment had  grown  so  rapidly  that  it  was  deemed  best  to  incor- 
porate it.  It  received  the  name  of  Lyme,  J  and  has  been  the 
seat  of  the  Griswolds  and  many  other  families  of  distinction 
from  that  day  to  this. 

As  early  as  May  1662,  a  purchase  had  been  made  of  the 
Indians  of  a  large  tract  of  land  called  Thirty  Mile  Island — a 
valuable  township  lying  on  either  bank  of  the  Connecticut 

*  See  Hutchinson,  i.  228,  229.         +  Colonial  Records,  ii.  34,  35. 
:t  Colonial  Pvecords,  ii.  60. 


HADDAM,   SIMSBURY,   WALLINGFORD.  255 

river,  about  thirty  miles  from  its  mouth.  The  original  pro- 
prietors were  twenty-eight  in  number,  and  they  began  their 
settlement  on  the  west  side  of  the  river.  The  plantation  had 
grown  rapidly.  At  the  October  session  of  the  general 
assembly,  1668,  it  was  incorporated  under  the  name  of 
Haddam.*  It  included  the  present  town  of  East  Haddam, 
then  known  by  its  Indian  name  of  Machemoodus.f  The 
first  settlers,  for  the  most  part,  were  from  Hartford,  Weth- 
ersfield  and  Windsor.  The  lands 'that  border  the  river  are 
not  alluvial,  like  those  of  Hartford  and  Glastenbury,  but  they 
are  very  productive,  the  prevailing  soil  being  a  dry,  gravelly 
loam.  There  are  large  tracts  of  forest  trees  still  standing  in 
this  town,  and  it  presents  some  of  the  most  picturesque  views 
of  the  Connecticut  that  are  to  be  found  in  its  whole  course. 
At  the  time  of  the  first  settlement  of  the  town,  it  afforded 
excellent  hunting  and  fishing  ground. 

In  April  1644,  liberty  had  been  granted  by  the  general 
court  of  Connecticut  to  Governor  Hopkins  and  Governor 
Haynes  to  sell  the  district  lying  upon  the  Tunxis  river  called 
Massacoe,  to  such  of  the  inhabitants  of  Windsor  as  they 
should  select.  In  1647,  a  new  method  was  adopted  towards 
instituting  a  plantation  there,  as  the  former  one  had  not 
accomplished  the  object.  The  court  therefore  resolved  that 
this  same  tract  should  be  purchased  by  the  "  country,"  and  a 
committee  should  sell  it  at  their  discretion  to  the  planters  of 
Windsor.  This  plan  resulted  favorably,  and  although  the 
plantation  was  at  first  treated  as  a  part  of  the  old  town  of 
Windsor,  it  was  so  thriving  and  grew  up  to  be  so  vigorous 
and  hardy,  that  it  was  in  May  1670,  incorporated,  and  took 
the  name  of  Simsbury.J 

As  the  same  session,  the  place  called  "  New  Haven  vil- 
lage" was  made  a  town  and  received  and  still  retains  the 
name  of  Wallingford.§  The  lands  embraced  in  it  had  been 
bought  by  Eaton  and  Davenport  of  the  Indians  in  1638. 
The  settlement  was  projected  in  1669.     It  was  at  first  a  part 

*  Colonial  Records,  ii.  97.     t  Trumbull,  i.  317.     t  Colonial  Eeeords,  ii.  127. 
§  lb.  ii.  127. 


258  HISTOEY  OF  CONNECTICUT. 

of  New  Haven,  as  Simsbury  was  of  Windsor.  The  Rev. 
Samuel  Street  was  the  first  minister  there ;  and  we  are  told 
that  Mr.  Davenport  was  present  and  assisted  in  laying  the 
foundation  of  the  church,  and,  standing  at  the  foot  of  the 
eminence  where  the  village  looks  off  so  pleasantly  upon  the 
then  fair  range  of  woods  and  streams,  preached  a  character- 
istic discourse  from  the  words  of  Isaiah  : — "  My  beloved  hath 
a  vineyard  in  a  very  fruitful  hill."* 

For  about  twenty  years,  the  citizens  of  New  Haven  had 
been  trying  to  establish  a  plantation  at  Paugasset,  on  the 
Naugatuck  river.  About  the  year  1653,  Governor  Good- 
year, in  company  with  several  other  gentlemen  of  New 
Haven,  bought  a  large  tract  of  land  there  of  the  Indians.  A 
few  feeble  beginnings  were  made  the  next  year  towards  a 
settlement  upon  this  purchase ;  and  at  the  October  session 
of  the  general  court  of  New  Haven  colony,  in  1655,  the 
inhabitants  of  the  place  presented  their  application  to  be 
made  a  town.  The  court  granted  their  petition,  gave  them 
the  privilege  of  purchasing  a  still  larger  tract,  and  relieved 
them  from  the  burden  of  taxation.  Richard  Baldwin,  at  the 
same  session  of  the  court,  was  appointed  moderator  to  call 
meetings  and  conduct  the  affairs  of  the  town.  But  this 
piece  of  legislation  was  very  displeasing  to  Mr.  Prudden  and 
the  other  citizens  of  Milford,  for  Paugasset  had  been  a  part 
of  that  town  since  it  was  first  settled,  and  they  looked  upon 
the  act  of  incorporation  as  a  dismemberment  of  their  own 
territory,  and  an  encroachment  upon  their  municipal  juris- 
diction. They  therefore  remonstrated  against  the  doings  of 
the  court  at  its  next  session,  and  induced  that  body  to  re- 
consider its  vote,  at  least  so  far  as  to  order  that  Paugasset 
should  remain  a  part  of  Milford,  unless  the  respective  parties 
should  mutually  consent  to  have  the  act  of  incorporation  go 
into  effect.f 

In  1657  and  1659,  a  further  purchase  was  made  of  the 
chief  sagamores  We-ta-na-mow  and  Ras-ke-nu-te,  and  the 
purchase  was  afterwards  confirmed  by  the  chief  sachem, 

*  Lambert,  83  ;  Barber's  Hist.  Coll.  253.         f  Trumbull,  i.  321. 


THE  NATJGATUCK  VALLEY.  257 

Okenuck.  Some  of  the  principal  planters  were  Edmund 
Wooster,  Edward  Riggs,  Richard  Baldwin,  Samuel  Hopkins, 
Thomas  Langdon  and  Francis  French.* 

Thus  stood  affairs  with  Paugusset,  when  in  1671  the 
inhabitants  preferred  a  petition  to  the  general  assembly  of 
Connecticut,  the  burden  of  which  was  their  old  prayer  for 
town  privileges.  This  oracle  also  responded  somewhat 
equivocally,  by  determining  that  their  southern  bounds 
should  be  the  north  line  of  Milford,  and  that  they  might 
stretch  their  limits  twelve  miles  northward,  to  a  place  called 
"  the  notch,"  and  that  as  soon  as  they  could  swell  their  num- 
bers to  thirty,  they  should  be  incorporated. f 

For  four  years  more,  the  people  of  this  little  settlement 
held  their  peace,  and  then,  in  May  of  the  year  1675,  they 
renewed  their  application.  They  represented  that  they  then 
had  twelve  families,  and  should  soon  have  eleven  more  ;  that 
they  had  provided  a  minister,  built  a  house  for  him,  and 
made  all  the  arrangements  for  permanent  religious  worship. 
This  last  appeal  was  irresistible.  The  general  assembly 
forthwith  gave  them  an  independent  existence,  and  called 
them  Derby. J  When  we  think  of  the  feeble  infancy  of  this 
eldest  of  inland  towns  in  the  valley  of  the  Naugatuck,  and 
see  the  thousands  that  now  inhabit  them,  and  listen  to  the 
hum  of  their  spindles,  the  rattle  of  their  looms,  with  all  the 
myriad  voices  that  industry  and  enterprise  blend  in  a  per- 
petual song  of  development  and  progress  along  the  whole 
course  of  that  swift  mountain  stream,  the  change  seems 
indeed  astonishing,  and  in  any  other  country  and  with  any 
other  population  in  the  world,  would  have  been  impossible. 

A  dispute  of  an  ecclesiastical  character,  that  will  find  a 
place  in  a  subsequent  chapter  of  this  work,  broke  out  in  the 
church  at  Stratford,  that  ultimately  led  to  the  settlement  of 
another  plantation  still  further  inland.  This  was  the  then  cele- 
brated controversy  between  the  Rev.  Mr.  Chauncey  and  the 
Rev.  Mr.  Walker  and  their  respective  parties.  It  began  in 
1664,  and  was  agitated  before  the  general  assembly  for  about 

*  TrumbuU,  i.  322.        t  Colonial  Records,  ii.  148.        i  lb.  ii.  248,  249. 
17 


258  HISTORY  OF  CONNECTICUT. 

eight  years.  Governor  Winthrop,  following  the  good  advice 
of  Mr.  Davenport  to  the  people  of  Wethersfield,  with  a  view 
of  putting  an  end  to  this  unhappy  affair,  proposed  to  Mr. 
Walker  that  he  and  his  people  should  remove  out  of  the 
limits  of  Stratford  and  found  a  new  plantation  by  themselves, 
in  some  convenient  place  that  they  might  choose.  If  this 
plan  should  be  adopted,  he  himself  offered  to  lend  his  influ- 
ence to  procure  a  grant  of  land  and  privileges  of  incorpora- 
tion for  a  town. 

In  pursuance  of  this  promise,  we  find  that  on  the  9th  of 
May  1672,  there  was  granted  to  "Mr.  Samuel  Sherman, 
Lieut.  William  Curtis,  Ensign  Joseph  Judson,  and  John 
Minor,  themselves  and  associates,  liberty  to  erect  a  plan- 
tation at  Pomperaug.*  There  were  a  few  reasonable  re- 
strictions in  this  grant,  that  I  need  not  name  in  this  connec- 
tion. It  was  too  late  in  the  season  for  the  planters  who  pro- 
posed to  emigrate,  to  entertain  the  thought  of  breaking  up 
the  soil  of  the  contemplated  purchase,  and  planting  it  with 
corn  to  any  great  extent,  yet  they  at  once  set  about  the  task 
of  making  ready  to  go  the  next  spring ;  and  some  of  the 
most  active  men  set  out  forthwith  for  the  place,  and  planted 
a  few  acres  of  Indian  corn,  which  they  harvested  in  the  fall, 
and  placed  in  cribs  made  of  logs.  But  they  derived  little 
benefit  from  it,  for  the  Indians  and  the  wild  beasts  ate  it  up 
during  the  winter.f 

Early  the  next  spring,  fifteen  planters  of  Mr.  Walker's 
party  set  out  with  their  families  for  the  valley  of  the  Pom- 
peraug. They  were  told  to  follow  the  Pootatuck  or  Great 
River — now  known  as  the  Housatonick — "  till  they  came  to 
a  large  river  flowing  into  it  from  the  north.  They  were  to 
follow  up  this  stream  about  eight  miles,  when  they  would 
reach  a  large  open  plain."  Upon  this  plain  they  were  to 
stop  and  commence  the  foundations  of  their  future  town, 
away  from  the  other  settlements,  alone  in  the  wilderness. 

With  bold  hearts  they  began  their  journey,  but  when  they 
came  to  the  mouth  of  the  Pomperaug,  the  volume  of  water 

*  Colonial  Records,  ii.  177.         t  Cothren's  Hist,  of  Woodbury,  35. 


[1673.]  SETTLEMENT  OF  WOODBURY.  259 

that  it  added  to  the  deep  current  of  the  Housatonick — that 
main  artery  of  Western  Massachusetts  and  Connecticut — 
looked  so  scanty  to  them,  that  they  passed  it  by,  though  not 
without  some  misgivings,  and  continued  on  until  they  came 
to  the  mouth  of  the  Shepaug.  The  size  of  this  stream  did 
not  satisfy  them  much  better,  but  they  ventured  to  trust 
themselves  to  it,  and  followed  it  up  till  they  became  bewil- 
dered in  the  gorges  and  mountains  of  the  present  town  of 
Roxbury.  They  now  saw  their  mistake  and  hastened  to 
repair  it.  They  resolved  not  to  retrace  their  steps,  but  to 
take  an  easterly  course,  and  make  the  best  of  their  way  to 
the  stream  that  they  had  passed.  They  journeyed  over  the 
densely  wooded  hills  until  they  came  to  a  fair  swelling  ridge 
of  rich  forest  land,  now  called  Good  Hill,  that  looked  down 
upon  a  delightful  valley  threaded  by  a  bright  river,  and  al- 
ready half  subdued  into  good  plow  and  meadow  land  by  the 
Indians,  who  for  generations  had  been  preparing  the  way 
for  the  race  before  whose  more  systematic  husbandry  they 
were  to  vanish  like  the  dew. 

At  sight  of  such  a  goodly  land,  whose  acres  they  were  so  soon 
to  part  out  among  themselves  and  their  fellow  adventurers, 
the  little  company  fell  upon  their  knees  and  blessed  God  that 
their  lines  had  fallen  to  them  in  such  pleasant  places.  They 
encamped  on  the  hill  that  night,  and  the  next  day  they  ex- 
plored the  valley  with  earnest  diligence  to  find  out  the  best 
locality  where  they  might  build  their  log  cabins,  and  gather 
about  them  the  first  rude  comforts  of  pioneer  life.  At  even- 
ing they  encamped  under  a  white  oak  tree,  far  down  the 
river,  in  the  present  town  of  Southbury.  The  locality  still 
retains  the  name  of  White  Oak,  in  commemoration  of  the 
event ;  and  tradition,  true  to  the  fathers  of  Woodbury,  still 
points  out  the  spot  where  they  slept,  though  the  oak  that 
they  rested  under  has  long  since  mouldered  like  them  into  the 
soft,  warm  earth  of  the  valley. 

All  the  large  territory  of  this  venerable  town — the  oldest 
in  Litchfield  county — was  amicably  purchased  of  the  In- 
dians.    It  was  a  very  extensive  region,  fifteen  miles  in  length 


260  HISTOEY  OF  CONNECTICUT. 

from  north  to  south,  and  ten  miles  in  width.  It  had  a  good 
variety  of  hill  and  valley  lands  and  was  watered  by  many 
lively  streams,  that  for  the  most  part  helped  to  make  up  the 
two  large  branches  of  the  Pootatuck  river  that  I  have 
before  alluded  to. 

The  settlers,  soon  after  their  arrival,  formed  a  constitu- 
tion,* and  signed  it  by  a  committee  in  due  form.  Their 
friends  soon  followed  them,  and  in  1674,  the  plantation  was 
incorporated  under  the  name  of  Woodbury.f  The  town- 
ship then  embraced  all  the  territory  now  included  in  the 
towns  of  Washington,  Southbury,  Bethlem,  Roxbury,  and  a 
part  of  Oxford  and  Middlebury.  These  different  sections 
were  first  set  off  and  incorporated  as  ecclesiastical  societies ; 
but  as  they  gradually  increased  in  population,  they  were 
ultimately,  one  after  another,  invested  with  "town  priv- 
ileges." 

I  have  mentioned  the  settlement  of  these  several  towns 
in  this  chapter,  not  only  to  preserve  the  chronological  order 
of  events,  but  because  they  were  obliged  to  devote  their 
infancy  to  the  prevention  of  the  sanguinary  struggle  that  I 
now  proceed  to  narrate. 

It  had  been  thought  that  for  several  years  Philip,  chief 
sachem  of  the  Wampanoags,  had  used  all  his  address  to 
incite  a  general  insurrection  of  the  Indians  for  the  purpose 
of  exterminating  the  English.  That  jealousies  were  exciting 
in  his  breast  against  his  white  neighbors,  of  a  deeply-rooted 
growth,  is  certainly  true ;  it  is  also  true  that  he  kept  under 
arms  and  paid  frequent  visits  to  the  tribes  that  owed  allegi- 
ance to  him.  This  greatly  alarmed  the  English  colonies. 
A  little  while  before  the  war  broke  out,  the  governor  of  Mas- 
sachusetts  sent  an  ambassador  to  him  to  demand  of  him 

*  For  a  copy  of  this  constitution,  and  for  a  more  minute  account  of  the  settle- 
ment of  this  fine  old  town,  I  must  refer  the  reader  to  Cothren's  "  History  of 
Ancient  Woodbury," — a  work  that  will  remain  a  monument  of  the  learning  and 
untiring  perseverenee  of  the  author,  as  long  as  there  shall  continue  to  exist  upon 
this  continent  a  single  antiquarian  library  that  tells  a  true  tale  of  the  sufferinga 
and  privations  of  the  earlier  if  not  better  days  of  Connecticut. 

t  Col.  Rec,  ii.  227. 


THE   INDIANS  REJECT   CHRISTIANITY.  261 

why  he  would  make  war  with  the  English,  and  requested 
him  to  enter  into  a  treaty  with  them.  "Your  governor," 
said  Philip  to  the  messenger,  "is  but  a  subject  of  King 
Charles  of  England.  I  shall  not  treat  with  a  subject.  I 
shall  treat  of  peace  only  with  the  king,  my  brother.  When 
he  comes,  I  am  ready."  If  he  entertained  any  design  of 
making  an  attack  upon  the  colonies,  he  evidently  wished  to 
conceal  it  until  he  had  ripened  his  plans.  The  causes  of 
this  fierce  war  were  many,  and  of  slow  but  certain  operation. 
The  immediate  occasion  of  it  was  as  sudden  as  the  eruption 
of  a  volcano. 

Efforts  had  long  been  made  by  the  authorities  of  Massa- 
chusetts, to  subdue  the  savageness  of  the  Indians  by  convert- 
ing them  to  Christianity.  No  one  can  read  the  details  of 
the  life  of  Eliot,  the  Indian  apostle  on  the  main-land,  or  the 
still  more  touching  story  of  the  apostles  of  the  isles,  young 
Mayhew,  whose  missionary  zeal  was  quenched  in  the  billows 
of  the  Atlantic,  and  his  aged  father,  who,  by  inverting  the 
order  of  nature,  took  the  place  of  his  lost  child,  and  taught 
the  love  and  doctrines  of  Jesus  to  the  tribes  that  would  lend 
an  ear  to  him,  not  without  effect,  until  he  was  ninety-two 
years  old ;  and  not  feel  a  deep  reverence  for  the  religion  that 
can  lead  its  teachers  voluntarily  to  take  upon  themselves 
such  sacrifices.  Nor  will  any  one  deny,  who  has  dispassion- 
ately conned  over  those  labors  of  love,  that  they  had  much 
to  do  in  keeping  the  Indians  who  were  the  recipients  of  them, 
in  proper  subjection.  But  with  the  exception  of  the  few 
villages  in  the  vicinity  of  Boston,  and  the  Indians  inhabiting 
Cape  Cod,  Martha's  Vineyard  and  Nantucket,  the  influence 
of  the  Christian  teacher  could  hardly  be  said  to  exert  any 
control  over  the  aboriginal  mind.*  Even  those  Indians  were 
kept  in  check  by  the  indefinable  charm  of  the  missionary's 
life  and  character,  rather  than  by  any  effect  wrought  in  their 
own  hearts  by  the  doctrines  that  he  attempted  to  inculcate. 

Beyond  this  narrow  limit,  the  most  benighted  idolatry 
reigned  throughout  all  the  tribes  of  New  England.      The 

*  Bancroft,  ii.  97  ;  Mayhew's  Indian  Convert,  &o. 


262  HISTORY  OF  CONNECTICUT. 

Narragansetts  were  inflexible  in  their  adherence  to  their  old 
religion,  and  Philip  with  scorn  rejected  the  gospel  faith,  as 
cowardly  and  unworthy  of  an  Indian  chief  whose  hereditary 
glory  could  only  flourish  amid  the  desolation  of  war.  Be- 
sides, his  father,  Massasoit,  for  whom  he  appears  to  have 
cherished  a  deep  filial  regard — Massasoit,  who  had  been  the 
first  to  welcome  the  houseless  exiles  of  Plymouth  to  the  new 
world,  and  who  had  entertained  Winslow  and  his  retinue 
with  such  munificent  hospitality  in  his  royal  wigwam  at  Po- 
hansket — had  strictly  enjoined  upon  his  sons  never  to  allow 
the  pride  of  the  warriors  of  his  tribe  to  be  tamed  by  what  he 
believed  to  be  the  enervating  spirit  of  Christianity.* 

What  a  change  had  taken  place  in  the  condition  of  the 
Wampanoags  since  the  first  arrival  of  the  English!  Then, 
all  the  wide  expanse,  extending  for  miles  along  the  coast, 
with  its  bays,  creeks,  coves,  and  inlets  abounding  in  fish, 
as  well  as  the  undulating  wilderness  that  stretched  away 
to  the  very  fountains  of  the  rivers,  those  avenues  that  led 
from  one  hunting-glade  or  cornfield  to  another,  were  his 
realm  and  inheritance.  By  gradual  encroachments  during 
his  life  time  and  the  brief  reign  of  Wamsutta,  his  elder  son, 
cove,  cornfield,  forest  and  stream,  had  passed  into  the  hands 
of  the  English,  until,  finally,  upon  the  accession  of  Philip,  two 
small  tracts  of  land  made  up  the  only  territory  that  the  tribe 
could  safely  call  its  own,  and  presume  to  retain  in  its  exclu- 
sive possession  without  fear  of  molestation.  Other  fields, 
once  their  own,  they  could  still  wander  over,  but  wherever 
they  went  in  the  summer,  they  saw  the  black  mould  where 
once  their  eyes  rested  upon  the  green  turf;  the  unsightly 
stump  and  tree-top,  in  place  of  the  mighty  oak  and  shapely 
pine ;  and  the  hated  village,  with  its  stone  chimneys  and 
curling  wreaths  of  smoke,  like  a  moving  panorama  ever 
advancing  to  meet  them. 

Can  it  be  thought  strange  that  all  those  changes  that  had 
come  over  the  familiar  features  of  nature,  should  have  been 
so  many  tokens  of  jealousy  to  her  sons?     Once  her  luxuriant 

*  Bancroft,  ii.  99. 


[1675.] 


OKIGIN  OF  THE   WAR.  263 


beauty  soothed  their  rugged  natures  to  short  intervals  of 
repose.  Now  that  she  smiled  on  others  with  an  altered 
mein,  and  averted  her  eyes  from  them,  the  very  sight  of  her 
seemed  only  to  inflame  them  with  envy  and  madness. 

When  once  the  Indians  began  to  hate  their  white  neigh- 
bors, every  event  seemed  to  hasten  the  catastrophe.  They 
were  cited  to  appear  before  the  authorities  at  Boston  and 
Plymouth ;  they  were  subjected  to  the  prejudices  of  an  Eng- 
lish jury,  and  scorned  to  appear  and  defend  themselves 
before  courts  that  must  have  been  more  than  human  if  they 
had  in  all  cases  done  them  exact  justice.  But  I  am  aware 
that  the  causes  of  this  war  have  passed  under  the  review  of 
the  best  writers  of  New  England,  and  I  shall  prudently  retire 
from  a  field  where  there  is  little  left  to  be  gleaned. 

Philip  had  already  been  ordered  to  give  up  his  English 
weapons,  and  had  been  from  time  to  time  compelled  to  sub- 
mit to  a  series  of  interferences  and  examinations  that  could 
not  fail  to  arouse  the  indignation  of  an  Indian  sachem.  He 
was  also  obliged  to  pay  tribute  to  those  whom  he  regarded 
as  his  inferiors.*  Nor  was  it  a  mere  nominal  tribute  that 
might  serve  as  an  acknowledgment  of  fealty  to  a  sovereign 
power,  but  a  heavy  burden  that  enfeebled  him  and  helped  to 
enrich  those  who  exacted  it. 

In  a  moment  of  passion,  whether  instigated  by  their  chief 
or  not  I  can  not  say,  a  few  of  his  tribe  waylaid  the  informer 
who  had  betrayed  their  interests,  and  killed  him.  One  act 
of  violence  led  to  another,  and  the  English,  perhaps  in  no 
better  spirit  than  the  perpetrators  of  the  first  deed  of  blood, 
seized  them,  empaneled  a  jury,  made  up  partly  of  Indians 
who  were  friendly  to  the  English,  and  were  doubtless  known 
to  be  so,  or  their  services  would  not  have  been  put  in  requi- 
sition ;  and,  after  a  hasty  trial  that  hardly  served  the  de- 
mands of  decency,  found  them  guilty  and  hung  them.f 

This  was  early  in  June  1675,  and  on  the  24th  of  that 
month,  this  act,  so  rash  and  unnecessary  that  few  will  now 

*  Bancroft,  ii.  100. 

t  Drake's  Book  of  the  Indians,  b.  iii,  23  ;  Trumbull,  i.  327. 


264  HISTOKY  OF  COISTNECTICUT. 

attempt  to  justify  it,  resulted  in  the  barbarous  murder  of  at 
least  eight  of  the  English  at  Swansey.* 

It  would  seem  that  this  bloody  recrimination  was  not  the 
work  of  Philip,  for  he  expressed  the  deepest  regret  when  he 
heard  the  sad  tidings  that  he  must  have  felt  to  be  the  mutter- 
ings  of  the  distant  thunder  that  heralded  the  coming  of  the 
destructive  storm,  for  which,  if  he  had  anticipated  it  as  a 
future  event,  he  was  not  then  prepared.^  Well  might  he 
deplore  the  prospects  that  this  untimely  quarrel  held  out  to 
him.  Many  of  the  New  England  tribes  were  fast  friends  of 
the  English,  as  well  in  Connecticut  as  in  Massachusetts. 
Some  of  them  were  bound  to  them  by  self-interest,  othei's  by 
fear.  Even  the  Narragansetts,  that  large  nation  so  closely 
allied  to  his  own  people  by  blood,  although  Canonchet,  their 
chief,  with  his  warriors,  had  not  forgotten  the  death  of  his 
father,  Miantinomoh,  were  kept  in  awe  by  the  success  and 
growing  power  of  the  friends  of  Uncas.  He  could  not  avoid 
looking  at  the  relative  resources  of  those  who  were  to  mix  in 
the  strife.  He  must  have  seen  the  painful  contrast  between 
himself  and  his  few  hundred  warriors,  together  with  such 
allies  as  could  be  induced  for  the  sake  of  vengeance  to 
espouse  a  desperate  cause,  spending  the  summer  in  the 
woods  and  snatching  the  scanty  means  of  subsistence  at 
irregular  intervals ;  passing  the  winter  in  lonely  swamps, 
with  magazines  uncertain  as  the  agriculture  of  the  squaws 
was  slender  and  unproductive ;  in  forts  that  might  easily  be 
sought  out  by  his  enemies,  and  where  surprise  and  defeat 
must  be  annihilation ;  I  say,  he  must  easily  have  seen  the 
contrast  between  such  an  army,  fighting  for  the  most  part 
with  clubs  and  bows  and  arrows,  and  the  formidable  array 
that  could  be  sent  out  to  meet  it  by  the  united  colonies  of 
New  England,  who,  he  knew  were  pledged  to  support  each 
other,  who  lived  in  permanent  habitations,  had  abundance 
of  food,  were  provided  with  the  most  deadly  weapons,  had 
warm  clothing  to  screen  them  from  the  cold,  and  who,  in  all 

*  Drake,  b.  iii.  24. 

+  Callender's  Hist.  Dis.  at  Newport,  R,  I.,  1738. 


[1675.]  PHILIP  PREPARING  FOR  WAR.  265 

battles  that  they  had  waged  with  the  native  tribes,  had  been 
conquerors. 

On  the  other  hand,  the  Enghsh  were  not  without  appre- 
hensions. They  had  always  overrated  the  strength  of  the 
Indians,  and  had  been  kept  in  constant  fear  of  some  sudden 
surprise.  In  the  earliest  stages  of  their  settlements,  they  had 
looked  for  total  destruction  at  the  hands  of  these  half-naked 
savages,  of  whom  they  had  a  superstitious  horror,  such  as 
they  had  of  the  devil,  who,  as  they  believed,  loved  best  to 
dwell  in  deserts  and  solitary  places,  and  often  took  the  sem- 
blance of  a  painted  savage.  I  do  not  think  the  emigrants 
were  more  superstitious  than  other  Europeans  of  that  age 
would  have  been  in  their  situation.  But  there  is  a  restless 
uncertainty  that  follows  men  into  new  and  strange  con- 
ditions, and  often  surrenders  them  to  the  dominion  of  ill- 
founded  fears  and  false  estimates  of  things.  Hence  it  was 
that  the  Indian  bow  was  seen  in  the  sky,  that  the  moon, 
when  laboring  under  an  eclipse,  had  still  light  enough  left  to 
give  forth  the  ghostly  semblance  of  a  scalp  from  her  dark- 
ened face.*  Indeed,  they  had  much  cause  for  alarm.  The 
Indians  were  not  destitute  of  fire-arms,  and  they  could 
handle  them  with  the  most  fatal  accuracy. 

After  it  was  made  apparent  to  Philip  that  he  could  not 
shun  the  conflict,  he  addressed  himself  to  it  with  all  the 
earnestness  and  vigor  of  a  mind  naturally  gifted,  and  now 
quickened  into  terrible  activity  by  the  force  of  circum- 
stances. He  sent  his  runners  and  ambassadors  to  every  tribe 
that  he  had  reason  to  think  hostile  to  the  English,  or  whose 
chiefs  could  be  wrought  upon  by  the  eloquence  of  his  orators, 
to  unite  with  him.  His  eager  allies  daily  poured  in,  ranged 
under  their  respective  captains,  and  ready  for  battle ;  for  the 
warriors,  especially  the  younger  ones,  were  tired  of  the  long 
peace  that  had  enervated  their  frames  and  relaxed  their 
bow-strings.  As  they  increased  in  numbers,  they  grew  more 
and  more  intoxicated  with  the  prospect  of  success.  They 
flew  from  one  settlement  to  another,  silent  as  the  pestilence, 

*  Bancroft,  ii.  101. 


266  HISTORY  OF  CONNECTICUT. 

swift  as  the  lightning.  Village  after  village  was  burned  to 
ashes.  On  the  24th  of  June,  Swansey  was  destroyed,  and 
in  quick  succession,  Taunton,  Middleborough  and  Dartmouth 
lit  up  the  fair  expanse  of  Narragansett  Bay.  The  English 
fled  for  their  lives  before  their  destroyers.  Messengers  were 
sent  off  by  them,  to  give  the  alarm  at  Boston  and  Plymouth. 
As  soon  as  the  tidings  reached  the  former  place,  the  drum 
was  beaten,  and  in  three  hours  that  brave  old  privateer, 
Captain  Samuel  Mosely,  had  gathered  an  army  of  one 
hundred  and  ten  picked  men,  who  were  soon  ready  to 
march.  The  captain  had  about  a  dozen  of  his  privateers 
under  his  command,  and  there  were  added  to  the  effective 
forces  of  the  expedition  some  blood-hounds,  that  were  em- 
ployed to  track  out  the  enemy  in  their  concealment.* 

A  few  days  after  that,  the  people  of  Swansey  and  Reho- 
both  sent  to  Boston  for  further  aid.  Accordingly,  Captain 
Thomas  Savage  was  appointed  commander-in-chief  of  the 
expedition,  who,  with  sixty  horse  and  the  same  number  of 
foot  soldiers,  marched  forthwith  for  the  camp  of  Philip  at 
Mount  Hope.  On  arriving  there,  the  English  made  an 
attack  upon  him  so  suddenly,  while  he  was  dining,  that  he 
was  obliged  to  run  for  his  life.  Mosely  pursued  him  about 
a  mile,  and  killed  a  few  of  his  warriors.  In  this  hasty  flight, 
Philip  lost  his  cap.  It  fell  into  the  hands  of  Cornelius,  a 
Dutchman,  half  soldier  and  half  servant  of  Mosely,  who  kept 
it  as  a  trophy.  This  was  on  the  29th  of  June.  On  the  1st 
of  July,  two  or  three  more  Indians  were  killed,  and  their 
scalps  sent  to  Boston. f  For  the  honor  of  those  brave  men, 
I  wish  it  had  never  been  found  necessary  to  record  an  inci- 
dent that  seems  to  put  the  contending  parties  upon  such  an 
equal  footing. 

On  the  8th  of  the  same  month,  Benjamin  Church  and 
Captain  Fuller,  with  a  small  company  of  kindred  spirits, 
marched  down  to  Pocasset  Neck.  Church  had  tried  to  dis- 
suade the  English  commander  from  building  a  fort  at  Mount 
Hope  Neck,  as  an  utter  waste  of  time.     With  characteristic 

*  See  Drake's  Book  of  the  Indians,  b.  iii.  24.         t  Drake,  b.  iii.  26. 


[1675.]  HUTCHINSON  AND   BEEKS   KILLED.  267 

shrewdness  he  asked  the  question,  that  was  then  thought  to 
be  so  impertinent  in  a  volunteer  who  had  not  at  that  time 
proved  his  superior  prowess  and  sagacity  as  he  did  soon 
after — "  Why  should  we  build  a  fort  for  nothing,  to  cover 
the  people  from  nobody  ?"*  It  was  a  very  significant  in- 
quiry, as  it  turned  out  that  like  a  flock  of  pigeons,  every 
Indian  had  left  the  place.  He  advised  to  pursue  the  Indians 
upon  the  Pocasset  side.  Had  this  advice  been  followed,  the 
towns  lying  between  Pocasset  and  Plymouth  would  have 
been  saved  from  conflagration.  It  would  be  out  of  place, 
were  I  to  record  here  the  hot  conflict  that  took  place  at 
Pocasset,  even  had  it  not  been  delineated  with  such  minute- 
ness by  Church,  whose  pen  was  adequate  to  record  whatever 
deeds  of  daring  his  sword  could  perform,  and  who,  retreating 
backward  to  the  boat  that  had  saved  his  men  from  destruc- 
tion, was  the  last  man  to  take  refuge  in  this  ark  of  safety. 
At  this  battle,  Philip  was  present  and  fought  with  great 
bravery.  It  was  on  this  occasion  that  it  w^as  made  known 
how  well  provided  the  Indians  were  with  fire-arms,  as  was 
learned,  says  the  lively  chronicler,  by  their  "bright  guns 
glittering  in  the  sun." 

On  the  14th  of  July,  five  people  were  killed  at  Mendon. 
They  were  probably  shot  dead  while  at  their  work  in  the 
field,  and  were  as  ignorant  as  their  surviving  friends  of  the 
authors  of  their  death. 

On  the  2d  of  August,  Captain  Hutchinson  was  waylaid 
and  killed,  with  several  of  his  men,  while  going  to  treat  with 
the  Nipmucks.  Captain  Wheeler  also  had  his  horse  shot 
under  him,  and  was  shot  through  the  body,  but  escaped 
by  the  aid  of  his  son,  who,  himself  badly  wounded,  assisted 
him  to  mount  another  horse  and  fly.f 

On  the  3d  of  September,  Captain  Richard  Beers  was  sud- 
denly surprized  while  on  his  march  with  a  company  of 
thirty-six  men  to  reinforce  the  garrison  at  Northfield;  he 
was  attacked  by  a  large  body  of  Indians,  and  after  one  of 
the  most  desperate  struggles   recorded  in   our  annals,  was 

*  Hist,  of  Philip's  War,  p.  6.         t  Captain  Wheeler's  Narrative,  p.  1,  5. 


268  HISTORY  OF  CONNECTICUT. 

killed  with  about  twenty  of  his  men.*  The  hill  to  which  he 
fled  and  where  he  sold  his  life  at  so  dear  a  rate,  was  called, 
in  honor  of  the  event,  "Beers'  Mountain."!  The  Indians, 
with  a  view  of  striking  terror  into  the  breasts  of  their  ene- 
mies, committed  shocking  outrages  upon  the  bodies  of  the 
slain.  They  cut  off  their  heads  and  set  them  upon  poles 
high  in  the  air,  and  one  "  was  found  with  a  chain  hooked  into 
his  under  jaw  and  hung  upon  the  bough  of  a  tree."  J 

The  little  garrison  that  Beers  had  been  sent  to  relieve, 
suffered  every  extremity,  and  was  saved  only  by  the  timely 
coming  of  Major  Robert  Treat,  who  arrived  there  from  Con- 
necticut two  days  after  the  battle,  with  one  hundred  soldiers, 
and  conducted  it  to  Hadley  in  safety. 

By  this  it  will  be  seen  that  Connecticut,  whose  soil  was 
not  invaded  during  the  war,  had  nobly  come  up  to  the  rescue 
of  her  sister  colonies,  and  was  found,  as  we  shall  see  in  the 
sequel,  able  to  do  them  a  service  that  they  have  been  grate- 
ful enough  to  remember.  Indeed,  the  people  of  Connecticut, 
though  they  looked  for  the  approach  of  the  enemy,  and  took 
the  precaution  to  send  troops  to  Stonington  upon  the  break- 
ing out  of  the  war,  to  protect  that  exposed  part  of  their  fron- 
tier, bordering  on  the  Narragansett  and  Nihantick  country, 
yet  almost  every  step  that  they  took  was  in  defence  of  the 
other  colonies,  in  obedience  to  the  articles  of  confederation. 

The  Narragansetts  did  not  very  cordially  second  the  efforts 
of  Philip,  and  yet  they  aided  him  indirectly  by  harboring  his 
old  men  and  women,  and  it  is  not  unlikely  that  some  of  the 
more  adventurous  young  warriors  of  the  tribe  joined  in  the 
exciting  game.  The  chiefs,  at  the  head  of  whom  was  Canon- 
chet,  had  hitherto  resisted  the  importunities  of  Philip,  and 
refused  to  take  any  open  part  in  the  conflict.  It  was  quite 
evident,  however,  that  their  sympathies  were  with  him,  and 
that  their  pretended  neutrality  was  only  preserved  until  they 
should  be  able  to  discover  which  scale  of  the  trembling  bal- 
ance was  likely  to  preponderate.     There  was  another  motive 

*  Bancroft,  ii.  104  ;  Trumbull,  i.  334.         t  Drake,  b.  iii.  31. 
t  Hubbard. 


THE  NARKAGANSETTS.  269 

than  that  of  mere  policy,  for  the  inaction  of  the  Narra- 
gansetts. 

When  the  Mayflower  first  anchored  off*  the  coast  that  has 
since  been  so  celebrated  in  song  and  story,  the  Narragan- 
setts  were  the  most  wealthy  and  numerous  of  all  the  New 
England  tribes.  Even  the  pestilence,  that  had  a  few  years 
before  swept  off"  such  numbers  of  the  other  Indians,  had 
passed  by  their  wigwams  and  left  them  untouched.  They 
lived  in  the  south-western  part  of  what  is  now  Rhode  Island, 
and  all  the  tribes  that  dotted  the  shore  along  the  western  line 
of  Narragansett  Bay  paid  them  tribute.  Even  Massasoit, 
the  chief  of  the  Wampanoags,  was  subject  to  them,  and  as  a 
matter  of  course  his  tributaries  at  Shawmut  and  Neponsit, 
must  in  some  sense  have  acknowledged  their  dominion. 

The  pestilence  had  thinned  the  ranks  of  the  Wampanoag 
warriors  to  such  a  degree  that  the  Narragansett  sachems  had 
easily  subdued  them.  Hence  the  readiness  of  Massasoit  and 
his  tributaries  to  make  an  alliance  with  the  people  of  Ply- 
mouth that  should  enable  them  to  throw  off'  this  irksome 
bondage.  To  the  alliance  established  between  the  English 
and  Massasoit,  Canonicus  and  Miantinomoh,  though  it  cost 
them  perhaps  one  half  of  their  subjects,  submitted  in  silence. 
The  loss  that  the  Narragansetts  sustained  when  the  Wam- 
panoags thus  achieved  their  independence,  was  hailed  by 
Sassacus,  chief  sachem  of  the  Pequots,  with  joy,  as  it  weakened 
a  powerful  neighbor  and  rival.  But  Sassacus  was  too  good  a 
politician  not  to  see,  after .  watching  for  a  little  while  the 
growth  and  policy  of  the  English,  that  they  would  finally  be 
the  lords  of  the  whole  country  unless  they  could  be  swept 
oflf  at  a  single  stroke.  To  this  end  he  proposed  to  the  Nar- 
ragansett sachems  an  alliance,  and  offered  to  merge  all  their 
old  quarrels  in  this  last  struggle  for  existence.  But  the  Nar- 
ragansetts had  enjoyed  a  long  interval  of  peace.  Their 
warriors,  from  a  disuse  of  their  weapons  and  old  arts,  had 
become  enervated  and  disinclined  to  them,  and  had  turned 
their  attention  to  the  acquisition  of  wealth,  and  to  the  refine- 
ments of  a  moi'e  advanced  stage  of  civilized  life,  than  be- 


270  HISTORY  OF  CONNECTICUT, 

longed  to  the  tribes  contiguous  to  them.  The  Narragansetts 
were  then  the  mechanics  and  manufacturers  of  the  Indians. 
At  their  principal  village  they  made  a  large  share  of  the 
peag  that  passed  so  current  among  the  several  nations  of 
New  England.  Here,  too,  was  manufactured  pottery  on  a 
large  scale,  and  other  household  utensils.  Nor  were  they 
negligent  of  agriculture,  as  the  supplies  of  corn  that  they 
furnished  to  those  Indians  who  were  destitute,  and  the  vast 
stores  that  were  found  deposited  in  their  humble  granaries 
when  their  last  hour  of  agony  had  come,  bore  witness. 

On  these  accounts  this  ancient  and  generous  tribe  declined 
to  connect  themselves  with  the  dangerous  enterprise  of  Sas- 
sacus,  and  partly  for  the  same  cause,  I  doubt  not,  they 
shrunk  at  first  from  the  still  more  adventurous  designs  of 
Philip. 

Resolved  to  induce  the  Narragansetts  to  settle  upon  some 
fixed  policy  either  of  active  alliance  or  of  neutrality,  the 
commissioners  of  the  colonies  came  to  the  conclusion,  imme- 
diately on  the  breaking  out  of  the  war,  that  it  was  best  to 
make  a  treaty  with  them,  and  it  was  thought  safest  to  send 
the  army,  that  had  gone  to  the  relief  of  Swansey,  forward 
into  their  country,  to  facilitate  the  negotiations  by  that  most 
persuasive  of  all  arguments,  military  force.  Accordingly, 
this  had  been  done  before  the  fight  at  Pocasset  Neck,  and  on 
the  15th  of  July,  a  treaty  was  concluded  between  the  colo- 
nies and  the  six  Narragansett  sachems,  in  which  it  was  stip- 
ulated that  there  should  be  perpetual  peace  between  the 
parties,  that  the  Narragansetts  should  return  all  goods  stolen 
from  the  English,  and  that  they  should  harbor  neither  Philip 
nor  any  of  his  subjects ;  but  if  any  of  the  Wampanoags 
should  take  refuge  among  them,  they  should  kill  them. 

On  the  part  of  the  English,  it  was  agreed  that  the  Narra- 
gansetts should  receive  forty  coats  for  Philip  if  they  would 
take  him  and  surrender  him  alive,  and  twenty  for  his  head ; 
for  one  of  his  warriors,  two  coats,  and  one  for  every  head. 
The  Indians  were  compelled  to  give  hostages  for  the  faithful 
performance  of  this  harsh  and  forced  treaty.     Had  they  kept 


[1675.]  CAPT.   LATHROP  KILLED.  271 

it  long,  it  would  have  been  more  wonderful  than  that  they 
broke  it  as  early  as  they  did.* 

Soon  after  the  unhappy  loss  of  Beers  and  his  men,  it  was 
thought  best  to  establish  a  magazine  at  Hadley  and  garrison 
the  town.  At  Deerfield  there  were  three  thousand  bushels 
of  wheat  in  the  stack,  and  for  the  use  of  the  garrison  it  was 
determined  to  transport  it  to  Hadley.  Captain  Lathrop, 
with  eighty-eight  young  men,  "  the  flower  of  Essex  county," 
was  sent  with  teams  to  accomplish  the  work.  He  had 
loaded  it  in  sacks  and  was  on  his  way  to  Hadley,  when,  in 
passing  through  a  secluded  dell,  and  at  a  moment  when  his 
soldiers,  without  anticipating  danger,  were  plucking  and 
eating  the  ripe  clusters  of  wild  grapes  that  hung  temptingly 
from  the  trees  that  shaded  their  path,  they  were  attacked  by 
a  large  body  of  Indians  so  suddenly  and  with  such  ferocity 
that,  notwithstanding  the  desperate  resistance  that  they  made, 
they  were  nearly  all  cut  off*.f  Lathrop  himself  was  among 
the  slain.  Mosely,  who  was  not  far  off*  with  seventy  men, 
came  to  the  rescue.  He  found  the  woods  filled  with  Indians. 
He  computed  their  number  at  one  thousand  warriors,  and  so 
emboldened  were  they  by  their  recent  success,  that  they  did 
not  seek  to  hide  themselves,  but  came  out  boldly  and  dared 
him  to  fight  with  them. 

"  Come,  Mosely,  come,"  said  the  insulting  chiefs,  "  you 
seek  Indians,  you  want  Indians,  here  is  Indians  enough  for 

you." 

From  eleven  o'clock  until  almost  night,  the  old  privateer, 
aided  by  his  daring  lieutenants.  Savage  and  Pickering,  con- 
tested this  bloody  field  with  them.  At  last  the  English  were 
compelled  to  retreat.  With  a  strange  mixture  of  savage  im- 
providence and  rage,  the  Indians  cut  open  the  sacks  of  wheat 
and  some  feather-beds  that  lay  scattered  about  among  the 
dead  bodies,  and  strewed  their  contents  upon  the  winds. 
Then  with  yells  they  commenced  the  pursuit.  A  woful 
flight  it  would  have  been,  as  the  Indians  were  acquainted 

*  Trumbull,  i.  331,  332. 

t  Hubbard's  Narrative,  38  ;  Bancroft,  ii.  104 ;  Trumbull,  i.  334. 


272  HISTORY   OF  CONNECTICUT. 

with  all  the  passes  of  the  woods,  and  night  was  setting  darkly 
in  to  befriend  them.* 

Just  at  the  moment  when  the  little  army  seemed  hurrying 
to  an  inevitable  doom,  again  appeared  that  good  angel, 
Major  Treat,  with  one  hundred  Englishmen  and  seventy 
Mohegans  from  Connecticut.  A  sight  of  this  hero — always 
so  careless  of  himself,  always  so  solicitous  for  others — 
inspired  the  retreating  English  with  confidence.  The  tide 
was  turned,  and  the  Indians  now  sought  the  double  covert  of 
night  and  shade.  They  had  little  occasion  to  boast  at  their 
next  war-dance,  for  they  left  ninety-six  dead  warriors  upon 
the  field,  whose  life-blood  had  mingled  with  that  of  their 
enemies  to  tinge  the  waters  of  the  little  stream  that  can  not 
yet  lose  the  name  of  "  Bloody  Brook."f 

About  the  middle  of  September,  the  congress  had  ordered 
one  thousand  men  to  be  raised  for  the  general  defense, 
half  of  whom  were  to  be  dragoons.  Of  these,  Connecticut 
was  ordered  to  raise  three  hundred  and  fifteen  men  for  her 
proportion.  A  large  part  of  this  force  was  placed  under  the 
command  of  Major  Treat,  and  employed  in  protecting  the 
border  towns  in  Massachusetts. J 

The  Springfield  Indians  had  for  forty  years  kept  their  faith 
with  the  English,  and  had  long  withstood  the  solicitations  of 
Phihp.  But  when  they  saw  that  Northfield  and  Deerfield  had 
fallen  before  him,  and  that  he  appeared  every  day  to  gain 
ground,  they  declared  for  him.  Philip  had  resolved  to  attack 
Springfield  and  burn  it.  The  Springfield  Indians,  therefore, 
on  the  evening  before  the  contemplated  attack  upon  the 
town,  took  him  and  three  hundred  of  his  warriors  into  their 
fort.  The  plot  was  discovered  by  Toto,  a  Windsor  Indian, 
that  very  evening,  and  messengers  were  sent  off  in  haste  to 
inform  Major  Treat,  who  lay  at  Westfield  with  the  Con- 
necticut troops. §     The  people  of  Springfield,  however,  would 

*  See  Drake,  b.  iil.  32  ;  I.  Mather's  Hist,  of  the  War,  p.  12. 

+  In  1835,  the  anniversary  of  the  sanguinary  event  above  referred  to  was  held 
at  "  Bloody  Brook,"  on  which  occasion  an  oration  was  delivered  by  his  excellency 
Gov.  Everett.     *  Trumbull,  i.  334— note.     §  Drake,  iii.  32,  33  ;  Trumbull,  i.  335. 


[1675.]  DESTRUCTION  OF  SPRINGFIELD.  273 

not  believe  the  report,  and  Lieut.  Cooper,  who  had  com- 
mand at  Springfield,  early  in  the  morning  rode  out  towards 
the  Indian  fort  to  see  for  himself  what  was  the  state  of  affairs 
there.  The  man  who  rode  by  his  side  was  shot  dead,  and 
Cooper  was  mortally  wounded.  Although  shot  several  times 
through  the  body,  he  still  kept  his  horse,  and,  riding  furiously 
to  the  garrison,  gave  the  alarm.* 

Philip,  with  his  new  allies,  now  commenced  a  resolute 
attack  upon  the  place,  and  began  to  set  fire  to  the  buildings. 
Never  was  a  people  in  a  more  hopeless  condition,  and  never 
was  a  garrison  more  inadequate  to  the  defense  of  a  place  or 
to  protect  itself  from  destruction,  than  the  one  that  had  been 
thus  suddenly  deprived  of  a  rash  but  brave  commander.  It 
seemed  as  if  nothing  could  avert  the  ruin  that  hung  over  the 
garrison  and  the  town. 

Meanwhile  the  news  of  Toto's  disclosure  reached  Major 
Treat,  and  he  made  all  haste  to  rescue  the  besieged.  But 
for  want  of  boats  he  was  delayed  so  long  in  crossing  the 
river  with  his  army  that  before  he  reached  the  scene  of 
action,  the  destruction  of  Springfield  was  consummated. 
Thirty  dwelling  houses,  and  many  other  buildings  were  al- 
ready in  ashes.  With  his  usual  address.  Major  Treat  soon 
drove  the  enemy  from  the  place,  and  saved  the  inhabitants 
from  promiscuous  slaughter.  Their  property  he  came  too 
late  to  save.  Major  Pyncheon  and  Mr.  Purchas  lost  each 
one  thousand  pounds,  and  the  large  and  valuable  library  of 
Mr.  Glover,  the  clergyman,  as  well  as  his  house,  was 
destroyed. f 

On  the  14th  of  October,  the  General  Assembly  of  Con- 
necticut met,  and,  in  consideration  of  the  gallant  services 
rendered  by  Major  Treat,  gave  him  a  public  expression  of 
thanks  for  his  brave  conduct,  and  appointed  him  commander 
of  all  the  troops  to  be  raised  against  the  enemy.  J 

The  Rev.  Mr.  Fitch,  of  Norwich,  had 'informed  the  Assem- 
bly that  a  large  body  of  Indians  was  approaching  that  town, 
and  had  requested  that  troops  might  be  sent  to  defend  it. 

*  Trumbull.         f  Trumbull,  i.  335.         i  Colonial  Records,  ii.  266. 

18 


274  HISTORY   OF   CONNECTICUT. 

Major  Treat  was  therefore  directed  to  repair  to  Norwich  at 
once.*  This  order  was  soon  countermanded,  and  he  was 
sent  to  the  relief  of  Northampton.  For  this  place  he  imme- 
diately set  off. 

Philip  was  now  in  the  midst  of  a  series  of  brilliant  suc- 
cesses, that  elated  his  spirits  to  a  high  degree,  and  inspired 
his  warriors  and  large  body  of  adherents  with  great  confi- 
dence. With  a  body  of  about  eight  hundred  warriors,  he 
made  a  sudden  attack  upon  Hadley.f  So  well  had  he  con- 
trived the  assault,  that  every  part  of  the  place  felt  the  shock 
at  the  same  moment.  But  Hadley  was  defended  by  some 
brave  officers  and  soldiers,  who  made  a  stand  against  the 
enemy,  until  the  arrival  of  several  small  detachments  from 
the  neighboring  garrisons.  Major  Treat,  with  his  little 
army,  hastened  from  Northampton  and  reached  Hadley 
while  the  battle  was  yet  doubtful.  He  opened  such  a 
deadly  fire  upon  the  Indians  that  they  soon  fled.  Philip  in 
this  action  sustained  a  severe  loss,  and  his  warriors  were  so 
disheartened  by  the  blow  that  the  main  body  of  them  retired 
to  the  Narragansett  country.  Still,  little  depredating  parties 
prowled  around  the  scattered  dwellings  of  the  frontier  settle- 
ments, and  did  whatever  harm  they  could  to  the  English. J 

The  intelligence  given  by  Mr.  Fitch,  and  coming  from 
other  sources,  that  the  eastern  border  towns  of  Connecticut 
were  in  danger  of  being  attacked,  induced  the  General  As- 
sembly to  take  active  measures  for  the  protection  of  all  the 
border  towns  in  this  colony.  To  this  end,  at  the  October 
session  before  alluded  to,  it  was  ordered  that  every  county 
should  raise  sixty  dragoons,  well  mounted,  equipped  and 
provisioned,  to  be  ready  when  called  to  aid  in  the  de- 
fense of  the  colony.  Captain  Avery  was  also  placed  at  the 
head  of  forty  Englishmen  from  New  London,  Stonington 
and  Lyme,  with  as  many  Pequots  as  he  should  deem  neces- 
sary to  protect  that  part  of  the  country,  and  to  annoy  the 
enemy  at  his  own  discretion. § 

*  Colonial  Records,  ii.  265.         t  Drake ;  Trumbull.         t  Trumbull,  i.  336. 
§  Colonial  Records,  ii.  268. 


[1675.]  SUFFEEINGS  OF   OUR  TEOOPS.  275 

Captain  John  Mason,  worthy  to  bear  the  honored  name 
of  the  hero  of  the  Pequot  war,  was  appointed  to  command 
another  party  of  twenty  Englishmen  and  the  Mohegan  In- 
dians, to  act  with  Avery,  or  separately  from  him,  as  was 
found  most  advisable.  A  company  of  one  hundred  and 
twenty  dragoons  was  raised  to  act  under  the  immediate 
command  of  Major  Treat.  It  was  ordered  that  all  the 
towns  should  be  fortified,  and  various  other  measures  were 
taken  to  protect  the  weak  and  remote  settlements.* 

The  persuasive  arts  of  Philip  to  bring  over  Canonchet  to 
his  views,  had  by  this  time  prevailed  so  far  that  the  Narra- 
gansett  chief  was  induced  to  take  into  his  protection  the 
Wampanoags  and  other  tribes  who  sought  shelter  in  his 
country.  Whether  Canonchet  invited  them,  is  not  certainly 
known,  but  he  gave  them  a  friendly  reception,  and  that  was 
regarded  by  the  colonies  as  a  breach  of  the  treaty  that  the 
presence  of  an  army  in  his  country  had  compelled  him  to 
sign.  Besides,  the  congress  had  by  this  time  become  well 
satisfied  that  the  young  Narragansett  warriors  had  violated 
the  neutrality  by  actually  engaging  in  the  war,  as  some  of 
them  were  reported  to  have  returned  home  wounded.  It 
was  feared  that  the  old  Narragansett  heroism  was  at  length 
beginning  to  be  roused.  Of  course,  such  a  prospect  could 
not  do  less  than  alarm  the  English,  when  they  remembered 
that  the  tribe  was  reputed  to  have  at  least  two  thousand 
good  fighting  men,  and  one  thousand  muskets. f  I  do  not 
believe  that  the  Narragansetts  had  so  many  warriors,  nor  is 
it  probable  that  they  could  produce  a  fourth  part  that  num- 
ber of  fire-arms.  That  the  English,  however,  believed  the 
story,  is  quite  certain. 

Winter  was  fast  pressing  on.  If  these  warriors  should  be 
added  to  those  already  engaged  in  the  cause  of  Philip,  and 
should  be  allowed  to  betake  themselves  to  the  woods  the 
next  summer,  where  they  could  hide  themselves  and  waylay 
the  English,  it  was  feared  that  the  horrors  of  war,  already  so 
bloody  and  devastating,  would  be  fearfully  increased.     The 

*  Colonial  Records,  ii.  268.         t  Trumbull,  i.  337. 


276  HISTORY  OF  CONNECTICUT. 

fate  of  Hutchinson,  Beers  and  Lathrop,  with  their  parties, 
the  desolation  of  villages,  horrible  murders,  mutilations  of 
dead  bodies,  unparalleled  in  barbarity,  painful  captivities, 
and  famine  worse  than  all,  bore  witness  of  the  beginning  of 
the  struggle.     What  was  to  be  its  horrid  end  ? 

After  some  deliberation,  the  Congress  decided  to  raise  an 
army  of  one  thousand  men,  to  attack  the  Narragansetts  in 
their  principal  fort  in  the  winter.  Massachusetts  furnished 
five  hundred  and  twenty-seven  men,  made  up  of  six  compa- 
nies of  foot  and  a  troop  of  horse  under  command  of  Major 
Appleton.  Plymouth  provided  one  hundred  and  fifty-eight 
men,  in  two  companies,  led  by  Bradford  and  Gorham.  Con- 
necticut was  to  have  brought  into  the  field,  as  her  quota, 
three  hundred  and  fifteen  men,  but  she  sent  three  hundred 
Englishmen  and  one  hundred  and  fifty  Mohegan  and  Pequot 
Indians,  in  five  companies,  under  the  charge  of  Captains 
Seeley,  Gallup,  Mason,  Watts  and  Marshall.  This  brave 
corps  of  soldiers  was  under  the  command  of  Major  Treat. 
Josiah  Winslow,  governor  of  Plymouth  Colony,  was  the 
commander-in-chief  of  the  expedition.* 

The  utmost  care  was  taken  to  provide  for  the  wants  of  the 
troops,  and  after  doing  all  that  could  be  done  to  guard 
against  the  extremes  of  hunger,  snow,  cold,  disease  and 
wounds,  the  2d  of  December  was  appointed  to  be  observed 
as  a  day  of  fasting  and  prayer.  Major  Treat  arrived  with 
his  forces  at  Pattyquamscot  on  the  17th  of  December,  in- 
tending to  have  encamped  in  the  houses  that  he  expected  to 
find  there  for  his  reception.  But  the  Indians,  only  a  day  or 
two  before,  had  burned  all  the  houses  and  barns,  and  killed 
ten  men  and  five  women  and  children.  He  was  obliged  to 
pass  the  night  without  a  roof  to  shelter  his  troops. 

The  next  day  he  formed  a  junction  with  the  forces  from 
Massachusetts  and  Plymouth.  The  night  of  the  18th  was 
cold  and  stormy,  but  the  army  was  obliged  to  spend  it  in 
the  open  field,  unprotected  as  before.  On  the  morning  of 
the  19th,  at  dawn,  they  began  their  march  towards  the  fort 
'  *  Trumbull,  i.  337. 


[1675.]       ATTACK   UPON"  THE  NARKAGANSETT  FORT.  277 

or  principal  residence  of  the  Narragansetts,  that  was  about 
fifteen  miles  from  the  place  where  they  had  encamped. 
Mosely  and  Davenport,  with  the  troops  from  Massachusetts, 
led  the  van,  followed  by  Major  Appleton  and  Captain  Oliver. 
General  Winslow,  with  the  two  Plymouth  companies, 
marched  in  the  center,  and  Major  Treat  brought  up  the 
rear  with  the  Connecticut  forces.* 

The  army  marched  on  resolutely  through  the  deep  snow, 
without  so  much  as  taking  any  refreshment  except  what 
they  snatched  on  the  way,  until  about  one  o'clock,  when 
they  reached  the  fortified  town  of  the  enemy.  It  stood  upon 
an  eminence  in  the  center  of  a  vast  swamp.  Philip  with  his 
allies  had  erected  palisades,  and  added  as  much  as  his  means 
would  permit  to  the  natural  strength  of  the  place.  But  by 
the  treachery  of  an  Indian  named  Peter,  who  was  a  prisoner 
in  the  hands  of  the  Enghsh,  the  fort  was  discovered.  It  is 
not  likely  that  any  one  of  the  English  could  have  found  it  in 
the  immense  area,  half  marsh,  half  moor,  weary  as  they  were 
with  their  march,  and  suffering  as  they  did  from  hunger  and 
cold.  It  was  already  one  o'clock,  and  they  had  no  time  to 
lose,  for  night  would  soon  overtake  them,  and  the  Indians 
would  soon  be  upon  them.  So  adroitly  was  the  fort  con- 
structed, that  it  could  be  approached  only  at  a  single  point 
with  any  chance  of  success,  and  even  that  avenue  to  it  was 
guarded  by  a  block-house  in  front,  with  flankers  to  cover  a 
cross-fire.  The  island  occupied  by  the  fortification  con- 
tained about  four  acres  of  ground,  and  is  believed  to  have 
been  covered,  as  well  as  the  swamp  that  surrounded  it,  by 
primitive  pine  and  cedar  trees.  This  area  was  not  only 
surrounded  with  high,  strong  palisades,  but  it  was  made  still 
more  formidable  by  a  huge  irregular  hedge  of  fallen  trees, 
about  a  rod  in  thickness.  The  sole  entrance  that  appeared 
at  all  assailable  was  near  a  large  tree,  that  had  been  felled 
in  such  a  position  as  to  form  a  bridge  across  a  body  of  water 
that  lay  between  the  fort  and  the  main  swamp,  that  extended 
around  it.     This  log  was  four  or  five  feet  above  the  ground. 

*  Hubbard's  Narrative,  104. 


278  HISTORY   OF  CONNECTICUT. 

As  soon  as  the  English  army  entered  the  swamp,  they  dis- 
covered an  advance  guard  of  the  Indians,  and  immediately 
fired  upon  them.  The  enemy  returned  the  fire  and  then 
retreated  toward  the  block-house.  Without  waiting  to  form 
themselves,  or  reconnoitre  the  fort,  the  Massachusetts  forces 
followed  their  officers,  mounted  the  tree,  and  one  by  one,  as 
many  as  could  pass  upon  it,  entered  the  fort,  but  were  sub- 
jected to  a  raking  fire  of  musketry  from  PhiHp's  marksmen, 
who  were  stationed  in  the  block-house,  as  well  as  at  the 
points  most  favorable  to  repel  them. 

They  were  totally  unable  to  contend  against  such  fearful 
odds,  and  such  as  were  not  instantly  killed,  were  driven 
back  out  of  the  fort.  Yet  the  soldiers  followed  their  gallant 
captains  again  and  again  over  this  exposed  crossing-place,  to 
make  good  the  places  of  the  slain,  and  as  often  the  fire  from 
the  block-house  and  flankers,  and  other  points  of  entrance, 
swept  them  away.* 

As  it  turned  out,  there  was  a  good  deal  more  courage  than 
prudence  in  this  hasty  attack  upon  the  fort,  for  before  the 
main  body  of  the  army  could  wade  through  the  deep  snow, 
and  come  up  in  aid  of  those  who  had  attempted  to  force  the 
entrance,  Captains  Johnson  and  Davenport,  with  many  of  the 
Massachusetts  men,  were  beyond  human  help.f  Major 
Treat,  as  he  had  brought  up  the  rear  of  the  whole  army,  was 
the  last  to  reach  the  fatal  pass.  Regardless  of  danger,  the 
Connecticut  captains,  one  after  another,  led  up  their  men, 
inspiring  them  with  encouraging  words,  the  last  still  supply- 
ing the  places  of  those  who  went  before  them,  and  keeping 
good  the  numbers  of  undaunted  hearts  who  fell  before  the 
increasing  and  murderous  fire  of  the  Indians.  Three  of  the 
five  Connecticut  captains  were  killed. J  Marshall  fell  dead 
from  the  fatal  tree.  The  English  had  not  looked  for  such  an 
obstinate  defence. 

While  this  terrible  slaughter  of  the  Connecticut  troops 

*  Holmes,  ii.  376  ;    Hutchinson,  i.  271  ;    Drake,  b.  iii.  34,  35  ;    Trumbull,  i. 
338,  339. 
+  Hutchinson,  i.  271.        t  Holmes,  ii.  376. 


[1675.]  THE   FORT  TAKEN  AND  DESTROYED.  279 

was  going  on,  Captain  Mosely  forced  an  entrance  through 
or  over  the  hedge  where  it  was  weakest,  and  attacked  the 
Indians  in  the  rear — opening  a  fire  upon  their  backs  as  thej 
stood  crowded  closely  together,  with  large  muskets  loaded 
with  pistol  bullets.  The  Indians  now  fled  from  their  first 
position,  and  took  refuge  in  their  wigwams,  and  in  every 
nook  that  afforded  them  a  screen  behind  which  to  discharge  * 
their  shot. 

"  They  run,  they  run,"  shouted  the  English  captains,  as 
they  cheered  on  their  men.* 

At  this  critical  moment  fell  Captains  Gallup  and  Seeley, 
both  shot  dead  in  front  of  their  respective  companies. 
About  this  time  Mason  received  a  wound  that  proved  to  be 
mortal.  At  last  the  English  gained  the  center  of  the  fort, 
and  after  a  long  and  bloody  conflict,  put  the  Indians  to 
flight.  With  frightful  yells,  thej^  flew  into  the  surrounding 
thickets,  leaving  the  fort  in  the  hands  of  the  English,  who, 
at  a  dear  rate,  had  bought  the  victory.  There  were  six 
hundred  wigwams  within  the  fort,  containing  ample  shelter 
for  four  thousand  human  beings.  There  were  also  large 
stores  of  corn  and  immense  quantities  of  wampum,  and  of 
those  utensils  that  were  wrought  in  such  abundance  and  with 
such  skill  by  the  Narragansetts.f 

There  had  been  three  hundred  Indian  warriors  slain, J  and 
others  who  were  wounded  died  in  the  cold  cedar  swamp, 
whither  they  had  taken  refuge.  About  the  same  number 
were  taken  prisoners,  besides  three  hundred  women  and 
children,  who  afterwards  drank  to  the  bitter  dregs  the  cup 
of  captivity  and  sorrow.  Captain  Church,  who  was  present 
as  a  volunteer,  begged  that  the  fort  and  provisions  might  be 
spared  for  the  shelter  and  supply  of  the  enemy,  and  especially 
for  the  protection  of  the  wounded.     But  other  counsels  pre- 

*  See  Drake,  b.  iii.  3.5. 

t  Hutchinson,  i.  272,  273 ;  Trumbull,  i.  339  ;  Bancroft,  ii.  105. 

+  Some  authorities  place  the  number  as  high  as  seven  hundred.  The  number 
given  above,  however,  is  that  contained  in  a  letter  in  Hutchinson  (i.  233,)  attribu- 
ted to  Major  Bradford,  who  was  a  participant  in  the  fight. 


280  HISTORY  OF  CONNECTICUT. 

vailed.  The  village  was  burned  to  ashes,  and  all  the  valu- 
able stores  that  it  contained,  with  the  old  men,  women,  and 
children,  whose  number  history  has  never  recorded,  and 
whose  agony,  though  brief,  was  only  heard  in  its  full  signifi- 
cance by  the  ear  of  a  mercy  that  is  infinite. 

What  a  commentary  did  that  winter  scene — the  crackling 
.flames  melting  the  snow  from  the  cedars  and  pines,  and 
scorching  their  green  leaves,  the  blackened  bodies  half  con- 
sumed, the  shivering  English  soldier  whose  blood  was 
staunched  more  by  the  numbing  touch  of  cold  than  by  the 
surgeon  who  was  himself  paralyzed,  the  poor  Indian  fugi- 
tives, none  the  less  miserable  that  they  were  savages,  cower- 
ing unprotected  beneath  the  bushes  or  to  the  leeward  of  the 
snow-drift,  to  shun  the  wrath  of  such  a  sky  as  belongs  to 
New  England  in  the  dead  months  of  the  year — what  a  com- 
mentary upon  the  cruelty,  the  misery  of  war ! 

Six  of  the  English  captains  had  been  killed,  one  had  re- 
ceived his  death-blow,  and  eighty  of  the  soldiers  had  been 
either  killed  or  mortally  wounded.  One  hundred  and  fifty 
others,  who  had  been  injured  in  the  action,  recovered.*  But 
the  sufferings  of  the  army  might  be  said  only  to  have  just 
begun.  Night  was  closing  around  them ;  the  only  screen 
that  could  have  been  afforded  them  in  that  desolate  waste, 
was  the  comfortable  fort,  with  its  six  hundred  houses,  that 
they  had  burned  in  spite  of  the  wise  admonitions  of  Church. 
They  had  marched  fifteen  miles  since  day-break,  and  fought 
a  battle  that  had  lasted  for  three  full  hours.  It  would  be 
destructive  to  them  were  they  to  encamp  upon  the  upland 
or  upon  the  moor.  There  was  then  no  alternative.  Weary 
as  they  were,  they  must  again  take  up  their  line  of  march, 
and  spend  the  night  as  they  had  spent  the  morning,  in 
wading  through  the  snow. 

Just  as  the  sun  was  going  down,  they  gathered  up  their 

two  hundred  dead  and  wounded  men,  and  set  out  on  their 

return-march  to  head  quarters,  a  distance  of  about  eighteen 

miles.     It  was  a  night  never  to  be  forgotten  by  those  who 

*  Trumbull,  i.  340. 


[1675.]  THE   CONNECTICUT  TROOPS.  281 

survived  it ;  a  cold,  stormy  night.  The  Winding  snow  pur- 
sued them  all  the  way,  falling  in  vast  quantities  over  the 
undistinguishable  woods  and  swamps,  obeying  the  impulses 
of  the  howling  blast  that  ranged  over  the  wide,  desolate 
scene. 

It  was  past  midnight  when  the  troops  reached  their  des- 
tination. It  would  be  idle  for  me  to  attempt  to  delineate  the 
sufferings  of  the  wounded  soldiers.  A  part  of  them,  as  the 
night  and  storm  advanced,  became  insensible.  The  pulses 
grew  feebler,  the  cheek  grew  paler,  and  the  frame,  so 
languid  and  pliable  at  first  to  the  grasp  of  those  who  bore  it, 
stiffened  into  its  final  repose. 

Of  this  army  of  one  thousand  men,  at  least  four  hundred 
were  unfit  for  duty.  The  Connecticut  troops  were  more 
disabled  than  the  others,*  partly  because  they  had  entered 
the  fort  when  the  fire  was  deadliest,  and  partly  from  their 
previous  fatigue  in  marching  from  Stonington  to  Pattyquam- 
scot,  and  then  passing  the  night  in  the  open  air.  Some  of 
the  soldiers  were  frozen  to  death.  Of  the  three  hundred 
Englishmen  from  our  little  republic,  eighty  were  killed  and 
wounded — twenty  men  in  Seeley's  company,  an  equal  num- 
ber in  Gallup's,  fourteen  under  the  command  of  Watts,  nine 
of  Mason's,  and  fourteen  of  Marshall's  men.  Qf  these,  about 
forty  were  either  killed  on  the  field  or  died  of  their  wounds. 
Thus  half  of  the  loss  of  the  fatal  day,  that  broke  the  pride  of 
Philip  and  laid  waste  the  city  of  the  Narragansetts,  fell  upon 
Connecticut.!  Major  Treat,  who  had  been  in  the  hottest 
part  of  the  battle,  narrowly  escaped  death  from  a  bullet 
that  passed  through  the  rim  of  his  hat.  The  thanksgivings 
that  went  up  to  heaven  from  the  lips  of  our  people,  were 
mingled,  as  they  always  have  been  when  our  State  has  partici- 
pated in  deeds  of  valor,  with  the  wailings  of  widowhood  and 
the  cries  of  orphan  children.  In  the  eloquent  words  em- 
ployed by  the  General  Assembly  to  commemorate  the  event, 

*  See  Gov.  Dudley's  letter  in  Hutchinson,  1.  274. 
-  t  Note  in  Trumbull,  i.  341. 


282  HISTORY  OF  CONNECTICUT. 

"  Our  mourners,  over  all  the  colony,  witness  for  our  men, 
that  they  were  not  unfaithful  in  that  day."* 

Under  these  circumstances.  Major  Treat  thought  it  neces- 
sary to  return  home  and  recruit  his  troops. f  Indeed,  this 
was  the  only  course  that  he  could  have  adopted,  unless  he 
had  intended  to  sacrifice  one  half  of  the  remainder  of  his 
men. 

The  English  now  thought  the  opportunity  would  be  favor- 
able to  establish  peace  vi^ith  Philip,  and  various  proposals 
were  made.  These  overtures  were  answered  by  the  burning 
of  Lancaster  and  Medfield,  and  by  the  killing  of  Captains 
Pierce  and  Wadsworth.J 

In  February  1676,  a  large  number  of  Connecticut  volun- 
teers, belonging  for  the  most  part  to  New  London,  Norwich, 
and  Stonington,  were  formed  into  companies  under  Major 
Palmes,  Captain  George  Denison,  Captain  James  Avery,  and 
Captain  John  Stanton,  further  to  prosecute  the  war  against 
the  Indians.  With  them  were  associated  some  Mohegans 
under  Onecho,  a  son  of  Uncas,  some  Pequots  under  their 
chief,  and  about  twenty  Narragansetts  belonging  to  Nini- 
gret,  who,  by  keeping  his  neutrality,  doubtless  saved  his  life. 
These  companies  ranged  the  Narragansett  country  from  one 
end  to  the  other  in  quest  of  the  enemy.  Nor  did  they  work 
in  vain.  Canonchet,  or,  as  he  is  now  commonly  known  in 
history,  Nanuntenoo,  the  son  of  Miantinomoh,  and  the  chief 
sachem  of  the  Narragansetts,  had  escaped  the  destruction  of 
his  principal  town,  and  had  still  many  brave  fighting  men 
with  him.  Some  time  in  March,  he  had  ventured  down 
from  the  north  to  Seekonk,  near  the  seat  of  Philip,  to  get 
seed-corn  with  which  to  plant  the  towns  upon  Connecticut 
river  that  had  been  deserted  by  the  English.  Denison,  who 
had  been  ranging  the  woods  with  his  party  for  several  days 
in  search  of  the  enemy,  came  suddenly  upon  a  trail  near 
Blackstone  river,  and  soon  learned  from  a  squaw  whom  he 
took  captive,  that  Nanuntenoo  was  in  his  wigwam  near  the 

*  See  note  in  Trumbull,  i.  341.         t  See  Hubbard's  Ind.  Wars,  135,  144. 
t  Holmes,  il.  378,  379. 


[1676.]  CAPTURE   OF  NAISTUNTENOO.  283 

river.  Denison  lost  no  time  in  taking  measures  to  secure 
him.  The  chief  was  apprised  of  his  danger,  as  the  Enghsh 
approached,  and  ran  for  his  life  towards  the  river,  which 
Catapazet,  the  chief  who  commanded  Ninigret's  men,  him- 
self a  Narragansett,  and  who  thought  he  recognized  the 
fugitive,  pursued  him  with  all  speed.  Other  Indians  and 
English,  who  were  swift-footed,  followed  close  behind. 
Finding  himself  hard  pressed,  the  sachem  threw  off  first  his 
blanket  and  then  his  silver-laced  coat  that  had  been  pre- 
sented to  him  at  Boston.  This  garment  was  well  known,  and 
as  there  could  now  be  no  doubt  of  his  personal  identity,  the 
pursuers  took  courage  and  ran  with  still  greater  eagerness. 
In  the  company  was  a  Pequot  who  outran  all  his  compan- 
ions, and  who  gained  so  fast  upon  Nanuntenoo,  as  he  was 
flying  along  the  bank  of  the  river,  that  the  chief  was  com- 
pelled to  plunge  into  the  current  before  he  had  reached  the 
ford.  Even  as  it  was,  he  would  probably  have  escaped,  had 
not  his  foot  slipped  from  the  smooth  surface  of  a  stone,  and 
in  falling  brought  his  gun  under  water.  So  much  time  was 
lost  by  this  accident,  that  also  took  away  the  power  of  de- 
fending himself,  that  the  Pequot  came  upon  him  and  seized 
him  without  difficulty. 

Like  his  father,  whose  fate  he  must  have  remembered, 
Nanuntenoo  made  no  resistance,  and  like  him  scorned  to 
ask  for  a  life  that  he  knew  was  forfeit. 

Robert  Stanton  came  up,  and  with  the  forwardness  of 
youth  ventured  to  ask  him  some  questions.  At  first  the 
chief  looked  at  him  in  silence,  and  then  regarding  his  beard- 
less face  with  hereditary  scorn,  he  replied  in  broken  English, 
"  You  too  much  child ;  no  understand  matters  of  war.  Let 
your  brother  or  chief  come.  Him  I  will  answer."  He  kept 
his  word.* 

When  his  life  was  tendered  him  on  condition  that  he  and 
his  nation  would  submit,  he  rejected  the  ofler  with  indig- 
nation. Then  they  threatened  him  with  death  if  he  failed  to 
fall  in  with  their  terms.     He  calmly  replied  that  killing  him 

*  TrunibuU,  i.  344,  345  ;  Bancroft,  ii.  106. 


284  HISTOEY  OF  CONNECTICUT. 

would  not  put  an  end  to  the  war.  Some  of  them  taunted 
him  with  the  violation  of  his  treaty,  and  with  the  boast  that 
he  had  made  that  "  he  would  burn  up  the  English  in  their 
houses,  and  that  he  would  not  deliver  up  a  Wampanoag  or 
the  paring  of  a  Wampanoag's  nail."  "Others,"  said  the 
chief,  quietly,  "  were  as  forward  for  the  war  as  myself,  and  I 
desire  to  hear  no  more  about  it." 

Denison  took  him  to  Stonington.  A  council  of  war  was 
held,  and  it  was  decided  that  he  must  be  shot.  When  the 
sentence  of  this  court-martial  of  volunteers  was  made  known 
to  him,  his  only  answer  was,  "I  like  it  well.  I  shall  die 
before  my  heart  is  soft,  or  I  have  said  any  thing  unworthy 
of  myself  "t  I  find  in  the  history  of  Greece  and  Rome  no 
record  of  heroism  more  striking,  nor  a  dying  speech  more  in 
consonance  with  the  philosophy  of  self-sustaining  paganism, 
than  the  last  words  of  Nanuntenoo.  As  his  father  was  killed 
by  Uncas,  so  the  son  of  Uncas  superintended  the  execution 
of  the  son  of  Miantinomoh. 

Thus  perished  the  last  of  a  line  of  monarchs,  the  noblest 
among  the  New  England  nations,  and  thus  another  tribe,  the 
best  and  the  most  cultivated  as  well  as  the  most  powerful 
that  inhabited  the  northern  Atlantic  coast,  was  swept  away. 
The  rest  of  the  details  of  Philip's  war  are  foreign  to  my 
purpose,  and  I  shall  here  take  my  leave  of  the  chief  of  the 
Wampanoags. 

One  important  feature  of  this  war,  however,  remains  to  be 
delineated.  At  the  election  that  took  place  on  the  11th  of 
May  1676,  William  Leete  was  chosen  governor,  and  Robert 
Treat  deputy  governor.  To  carry  on  the  war  the  Assembly 
voted  to  raise  a  standing  army  of  three  hundred  and  fifty 
men,  who,  with  the  friendly  Indians,  were  to  defend  the 
country  and  harass  the  enemy. 

Major  John  Talcott  was  appointed  to  the  chief  command 
of  these  forces ;  the  Rev.  Gershom  Bulkley  surgeon,  and 
good  Mr.  James  Fitch  chaplain.  The  surgeon  and  chaplain 
were  made  a  part  of  the  council  of  war.     Norwich  was  made 

*  Trumbull ;  Bancroft. 


[1676.]  SUCCESS  OF  MAJOE  TALCOTT,  285 

the  first  general  rendezvous  of  the  army,  and  from  this  place 
Talcott  marched  about  the  first  of  June  with  some  two  hun- 
dred and  fifty  Englishmen  and  two  hundred  Mohegans  and 
Pequots,  towards  the  Wabaquasset  country,  in  quest  of  the 
enemy.  But  not  an  Indian  was  to  be  found,  though  they 
searched  the  woods  faithfully  in  the  old  retreats  of  the  sav- 
ages. The  wigwams  were  all  deserted,  and  the  fortifications 
made  of  the  tops  of  trees  were  without  a  warrior  to  man 
them.  At  Wabaquasset,  Talcott  destroyed  the  fortress  and 
about  fifty  acres  of  corn,  and  on  the  5th  of  June  marched  on 
to  the  country  of  the  Nipmucks.  There  he  killed  nineteen 
Indians  and  took  thirty-five  prisoners.  He  then  marched  to 
Brookfield,  and  thence  to  Northampton.  The  army  suffered 
fearfully  from  fatigue  and  famine  before  it  reached  North- 
hampton, and  that  march  was  long  known  to  the  people  of 
our  colony  as  the  "long  and  hungry  march." 

On  the  12th  of  June  a  furious  attack  was  made  upon 
Hadley  by  about  seven  hundred  Indians.  Talcott  soon 
arrived  and  saved  the  garrison  and  the  town.  The  Indians 
were  driven  off  with  such  promptness  that  they  were  pre- 
vented, as  is  believed,  from  making  attempts  upon  other 
towns  that  they  had  in  their  hearts  devoted  to  destruction. 

Some  time  after  this  the  Massachusetts  forces  arrived  and 
joined  Talcott's  troops.  The  army  then  scoured  the  woods 
upon  both  banks  of  the  river,  destroying  the  dwellings  of  the 
fugitive  enemy,  breaking  up  their  fisheries,  and  despoiling 
them  in  every  way  that  they  deemed  likely  to  take  from 
them  the  power  to  do  mischief.  Talcott  went  as  far  as 
Deerfield  Falls  and  then  returned.  After  he  had  spent  about 
three  weeks  in  that  part  of  Massachusetts,  he  departed  with 
his  army  through  the  wilderness  towards  the  Narragansett 
country.  On  the  1st  of  July  he  came  near  a  large  body  of 
Indians  and  took  four  of  them. 

Two  days  after  he  surprised  the  main  body  of  the  enemy 
on  the  border  of  a  large  cedar  swamp,  and  so  skillfully  did  he 
dispose  his  forces  and  conduct  the  attack  that  he  killed  and 
took  prisoners  a  large  number.     The  rest  fled  into  the  swamp. 


286  HISTORY   OF   CONNECTICUT. 

This  Talcott  surrounded,  and  after  a  fight  of  about  three 
hours  killed  and  took  captive  one  hundred  and  seventy-one 
Indians.  In  this  hard-fought  battle  thirty-four  Indian  war- 
riors were  killed,  and  after  the  action,  ninety  captives, 
who  were  fighting  men,  shared  the  same  fate.  Between 
forty  and  fifty  women  and  children  were  preserved  unhurt. 

That  same  day  he  marched  his  army  to  Providence  and 
made  an  attack  upon  the  Indians  on  the  Neck,  and  after- 
wards upon  those  at  Norwich.  In  these  two  places  he  killed 
and  captured  sixty-seven.  Thus,  in  a  little  more  than  a 
month,  he  had  killed  and  taken  two  hundred  and  thirty-eight 
hostile  Indians,  and  had  done  much  in  other  respects  to 
cripple  the  resources  of  Philip. 

On  the  5th  of  July,  Talcott  set  out  on  his  return  march, 
and  before  he  reached  Connecticut  took  sixty  more  prison- 
ers. If  we  add  to  the  killed  and  those  taken  alive  by  this 
gallant  officer,  those  also  who  had  fallen  into  the  hands  of 
the  volunteers  since  the  1st  of  April  of  that  year,  we  shall 
find  that  four  hundred  and  twenty  of  the  Indians  had  been 
subdued  by  Connecticut  alone,  in  the  space  of  about  three 
months.  When  we  add  to  this  the  depredations  made  upon 
the  country  of  Philip's  allies,  the  destruction  of  the  houses  and 
growing  crops,  and  the  carrying  away  of  their  corn,  beans, 
and  other  valuables  that  stood  them  in  the  stead  of  money, 
we  shall  be  able  to  form  some  adequate  conception  of  the 
aid  rendered  by  our  little  colony  to  her  distressed  neighbors. 

After  his  return.  Major  Talcott  waited  but  a  little  while 
to  recruit  his  men,  and  then  stationed  himself  at  Westfield. 
While  there,  he  discovered  a  large  party  of  the  enemy  flying 
towards  the  west.  He  pursued  them,  and  on  the  third  day, 
about  midway  between  Westfield  and  Albany,  he  came  up 
\vith  them.  They  were  lying  upon  the  western  bank  of  the 
Housatonick  river,  in  a  state  of  fancied  security,  without 
dreaming  of  the  approach  of  the  English. 

It  was  late  in  the  afternoon  when  Talcott  became  aware 
of  his  proximity  to  them,  and  he  deemed  it  unsafe  to  attack 
them  at  that  hour.     He  therefore  retreated  silently  to  a  suit- 


[1676.]  TALCOTT'S  STRATAGEM.  287 

able  distance  and  caused  his  army  to  pass  the  night  under 
arms.  As  the  dawn  drew  on  he  ordered  his  troops  to  form 
in  two  divisions,  the  one  to  cross  the  river  below  the  Indians, 
and  advance  upon  them  from  the  west ;  the  other  to  creep 
stealthily  up  to  the  eastern  bank,  and  there  lie  in  ambush 
until  they  should  hear  the  gun  that  was  to  be  fired  by  those 
who  had  crossed  the  river,  as  a  signal  that  the  savages  were 
approaching  within  the  range  of  their  shot.  When  they 
heard  this  gun  they  were  to  open  a  deadly  fire  upon  the 
Indians.  This  stratagem  would  have  been  attended  with  a 
fearful  destruction  of  life  had  it  not  been  partly  defeated  by 
an  accident  that  the  English  could  not  have  foreseen.  A 
single  Indian  had  left  his  fellows  in  a  profound  sleep,  and 
had  stolen  down  the  river  to  catch  fish.  As  the  party  upon 
the  west  bank  was  advancing  to  surprise  his  slumbering 
companions,  he  saw  them  and  cried  out  in  alarm  "  Owanux, 
Owanux !"  He  was  instantly  shot  dead  by  an  English  sol- 
dier. This  solitary  musket  shot  was  of  course  mistaken  by 
the  other  party  for  the  expected  signal  gun.  Too  hastily, 
therefore,  for  the  success  of  the  ambuscade,  they  arose  and 
fired  upon  the  startled  Indians  as  they  fled  towards  them. 
But  the  savages  soon  discovered  their  danger,  and  while  the 
English  who  were  coming  up  from  the  rear  were  too  remote 
to  do  them  much  injury,  they  turned  from  the  destructive 
bullets  of  the  ambushed  party,  and  ran  along  the  bank  of  the 
river  for  their  lives.  Still,  many  of  them  fell  victims  to  the 
enterprise.  Nothing  but  the  dense  growth  of  the  trees  and 
bushes  saved  them  from  a  total  annihilation.  The  sachem 
of  Quobaug  (Brookfield)  was  killed  and  twenty-four  other 
warriors.  There  were  forty-five  in  all  who  were  either 
killed  or  taken  prisoners.  Major  Talcott  in  this  war  was 
second  only  to  Major  Treat  in  his  practical,  effective  efforts 
to  reduce  the  power  of  Philip  and  hasten  his  downfall. 


CHAPTER  XIII. 

ANDEOSS  ATTEMPTS  TO  LAND  AT  SATBEOOK 

As  a  previous  declaration  of  war  had  been  made  in  Eng- 
land against  the  Dutch,  that  had  caused  much  alarm  in  the 
colonies,  and  had  induced  the  mother  country  to  make  com- 
mon cause  with  the  people  of  New  England,  all  interference 
on  the  part  of  the  government  with  our  civil  affairs  was  for 
a  time  suspended.  But  no  sooner  were  friendly  relations 
again  established  between  the  two  contending  powers,  than 
the  old  jealousy  that  had  so  long  existed  in  England,  against 
our  growing  strength,  began  to  be  revived.  Private  interest 
and  ambition  also  seconded  the  views  of  the  government. 

The  Duke  of  York,  who  was  by  no  means  satisfied  with 
the  tenure  by  which  he  held  his  property  in  America,  on  the 
29th  of  June,  1674,  procured  a  new  patent,  granting  the 
same  territory  named  in  the  old  one.  He  resolved  to  follow 
up  his  title  thus  acquired,  by  possession,  and  immediately 
gave  to  Major,  afterwards  Sir  Edmund  Andross,  a  commis- 
sion to  be  governor  of  New  York  and  all  the  territories  in 
those  parts. 

With  this  paper  to  vouch  for  whatever  arbitrary  thing  he 
might  think  proper  to  do,  Andross  sailed  to  New  England. 

The  boundaries  of  Connecticut,  that  had  been  so  carefully 
defined  by  the  king's  commissioners  ten  years  before,  were 
totally  disregarded  by  Major  Andross,  and  he  now  laid  claim, 
by  virtue  of  his  master's  new  patent,  to  all  that  part  of  Con- 
necticut lying  west  of  Connecticut  river.*  Unless  this 
outrageous  demand  should  be  acceded  to,  he  threatened  the 
colony  with  an  invasion.  The  astonishment  and  indignation 
of  the  people  of  the  colony,  at  this  disregard  of  their  own 

*  J.  H.  Trumbull's  Colonial  Rcc,  ii.  5G9  ;  also  see  Doc.  Hist,  of  N.  York, 
iii.  78. 


[1675.]  ANDEOSS   APPROACHES  THE   COAST.  289 

prior  grant,  ratified  by  a  solemn  award,  knew  no  bounds. 
Although  the  war  with  Philip  was  impending,  and  the  whole 
country  was  in  a  state  of  preparation  for  the  uncertain  issue, 
yet  it  was  resolved  by  the  governor  and  council  of  Connecti- 
cut, not  to  submit  to  a  dismemberment  of  the  colony. 

It  was  soon  made  known  at  Hartford  that  Andross  was 
about  to  land  at  Saybrook,  and  that  he  intended,  after  having 
taken  possession  of  that  important  post,  to  proceed  to  Hart- 
ford, New  Haven,  and  other  places,  until  he  had  made  him- 
self ready  to  suppress  the  government  of  the  people,  and 
establish  his  own  upon  a  firm  footing. 

As  soon  as  the  tidings  reached  Hartford,  that  Andross  was 
approaching  the  coast,  detachments  of  militia  were  ordered 
to  repair  to  Saybrook  and  New  London  as  speedily  as  pos- 
sible.* Captain  Thomas  Bull  was  appointed  to  the  com- 
mand of  the  garrison  at  Saybrook.  The  preparations  made 
to  oppose  his  landing  with  a  hostile  force  were  as  vigorous 
as  those  against  Philip,  or  the  armament  that  had  been  raised 
against  the  Dutch,  during  the  war  that  had  then  just  been 
brought  to  a  close. 

On  the  9th  of  July,  the  inhabitants  of  Saybrook,  who  were 
ignorant  as  well  of  the  intended  invasion  as  of  the  measures 
taken  by  the  govei'nment  to  resist  it,  saw  with  alarm  an 
armed  fleet  in  the  sound,  making  all  sail  for  the  fort.f 
Thus  taken  by  surprise,  they  were  at  first  thrown  into  much 
confusion,  and  were  undetermined  what  they  should  do. 
But  without  instructions,  as  they  were,  from  Hartford,  they 
were  not  long  in  recovering  their  self-possession.  They  de- 
termined to  meet  the  emergency  manfully,  and  treat  the 
invaders  as  enemies. 

True  to  themselves  and  the  popular  government  that  they 
had  sworn  to  support,  the  gallant  militia,  who  scarcely  needed 
to  be  officered,  rallied  as  one  man  to  defend  the  fort.  Bull  with 
his  company  soon  arrived,  and  with  great  alacrity  aided  them 
in  completing  the  enterprise  that  had  been  so  nobly  begun. 

*  Holmes,  i.  368  ;  Trumbull,  i.  328 ;  Bancroft,  ii.  404. 
t  Bancroft,  ii.  403  ;  Trumbull,  i.  328. 
19 


290  HISTORY   OF   CONNECTICUT. 

Meanwhile,  a  letter  that  Robert  Chapman  had  written  to 
the  governor  and  council  at  Hartford,  informing  them  of  the 
approach  of  the  armed  force,  had  received  a  very  character- 
istic answer,  that  could  leave  no  doubt  in  the  mind  of  Cap- 
tain Bull  what  would  be  expected  of  him.  Never  did  a  state 
paper  issue  in  the  name  of  a  colonial  government,  that  was 
couched  in  language  expressive  of  more  loyalty  or  tender 
regard  for  the  king's  honor.  Indeed,  the  name  and  interest 
of  "  his  majestic,"  if  we  follow  the  phraseology  of  the  docu- 
ment, make  up  the  principal  burden,  and  even  the  people  of 
Connecticut  are  lost  sight  of  in  their  zeal  to  maintain  the 
royal  prerogative. 

The  letter  is  addressed  to  Mr.  Chapman  and  to  Captain 
Thomas  Bull,  and  begins  with  the  announcement  that  intelli- 
gence has  just  been  received  at  Hartford  of  the  arrival  of  two 
sloops  of  war  from  New  York,  bringing  troops  under  Major 
Andross,  who  has  been  so  considerate  of  the  wants  of  the 
garrison  and  the  town,  as  to  pay  them  a  visit  with  a  view  of 
lending  them  aid  against  the  Indians.  These  gentlemen  are 
then  instructed  to  inform  Major  Andross  that  Connecticut 
has  no  occasion  to  trouble  him  in  this  matter,  as  she  has  al- 
ready provided  for  the  defense  of  her  own  territory ;  but  to 
make  him  acquainted  with  the  fact  that  Rhode  Island  is  the 
seat  of  war,  and  that  he  is  desired  to  repair  thither  without 
delay,  "for  the  relief  of  the  good  people  there,  who  are  in 
distress." 

After  making  this  charitable  provision  for  the  protection 
of  their  neighbors,  by  generously  proposing  to  make  every 
sacrifice  in  their  favor,  the  governor  and  council,  without 
intimating  a  suspicion  that  the  visit  of  Andross  could  have 
arisen  from  any  other  than  the  promptings  of  a  humane 
desire  to  save  the  colony  from  destruction,  go  on  to  say  that 
if  the  Major  shall  desire  to  go  ashore  with  any  of  his  gentle- 
men for  refreshments,  they  are  to  be  treated  with  all  due 
respect. 

Here,  for  some  mysterious  purpose  not  named  in  the 
letter,  those  to  whom   it  was    addressed  were  to  make  a 


[1675.]  DIRECTIONS   OF  THE   GENERAL   COURT.  291 

decided  stand.  "'  And  if  so  be  those  forces  on  board  should 
endeavor  to  land  at  Saybrook,  you  are  in  his  majesty's  name 
to  forbid  their  landing.  Yet  if  they  should  offer  to  land,  you 
are  to  wait  their  landing  and  to  command  them  to  leave  their 
arms  on  hoard ;  and  then  you  may  give  them  leave  to  land 
for  necessary  refreshing,  peaceably,  but  so  that  they  return 
on  board  again  in  a  convenient  time."  Then  kindling  into 
an  irrepressible  flame  of  loyalty,  and  again  losing  sight  of  the 
republic  in  their  zeal  to  protect  from  insult  the  sacred  banner 
of  the  British  empire,  they  earnestly  add,  "  and  you  are  to 
keep  the  king's  colors  standing  there  under  his  majesty's 
lieutenant,  the  governor  of  Connecticut ;  and  if  any  othei' 
colors  be  set  up  there,  you  are  not  to  suffer  the?7i  to  stand. 
And  in  general,  whatsoever  shall  be  done  or  attempted  in 
opposition  to  the  government  here  established  by  his  majesty, 
you  are  to  declare  against,  oppose  and  undo  the  same." 

Lest  these  general  instructions  should  be  liable  to  miscon- 
struction from  not  being  sufficiently  explicit,  they  particu- 
larize as  follows  : 

"If  they  make  proclamations,  you  are  to  protest  against 
them ;  if  they  command  the  people  to  yield  obedience  to 
them,  you  are  to  forbid  it,  and  to  command  them  to  continue 
in  obedience  to  his  majesty  and  his  government  here  estab- 
lished ;  and  if  they  should  endeavor  to  set  up  any  thing,  you 
may  pull  it  down ;  and  if  they  dig  up  any  trenches,  you  are 
to  fill  them  up ;  if  they  say  they  take  possession,  you  are  to 
say  you  keep  possession  for  his  majesty." 

After  thus  giving  expression  to  their  enthusiastic  love  of 
their  monarch,  as  well  in  detail  as  in  general,  their  habitual 
caution  comes  to  the  rescue ;  but  it  will  be  seen  from  the 
context  passage,  that  there  lurks  beneath  the  spirit  of  con- 
cealment, a  terrible  and  deadly  opposition. 

"  You  are,  in  his  majesty's  name,  required  to  avoid  striking 
the  Jirst  blow;  but  if  they  begin,  then  you  are  to  defend 
yourselves." 

In  the  whole  body  of  this  letter,  not  a  word  is  said  of  the 
claims  of  the  Duke  of  York,  nor  is  it  so  much  as  intimated 


292  HISTOEY   OF  CONNECTICUT. 

that  the  governor  and  council  are  aware  of  the  real  inten- 
tions of  the  invader.  The  postscript  alone  touches  upon 
this  dangerous  ground.  "  You  are  to  keep  your  instructions 
to  yourselves,  and  give  no  copies  of  it.  If  Major  Andross 
desire  a  treaty,  let  him  present  what  he  desires  in  that 
respect."* 

On  the  9th  of  July,  the  next  day  after  the  date  of  this 
letter,  the  General  Assembly  convened  at  Hartford,  and  pro- 
ceeded forthwith  to  draw  up  a  declaration,  protesting  in  the 
strongest  terms  against  the  conduct  of  Major  Andross.  This 
paper,  unlike  the  letter  of  instructions  sent  to  Bull,  is  very 
explicit  in  its  terms.  After  a  preamble,  reciting  the  horrors 
of  Indian  warfare,  and  the  critical  condition  of  the  colony, 
and  after  alluding  to  the  king's  charter  as  the  basis  of  their 
political  existence,  the  remonstrants  say,  "  We  can  do  no  less 
than  publicly  declare  and  protest  against  the  said  Major 
Edmund  Andross,  and  these  his  illegal  proceedings ;  also 
against  all  his  aiders  and  abettors,  as  disturbers  of  the  peace 
of  his  majesty's  good  subjects  in  this  colony;  and  that  his 
and  their  actions  in  this  juncture  tend  to  the  encouragement 
of  the  heathen  to  proceed  in  the  effusion  of  blood."  They 
add  further  that,  "  they  shall  unavoidably  lay  at  his  door," 
whatever  evil  consequences  may  flow  from  his  conduct,  and 
that  they  will  use  their  utmost  power  and  endeavor,  expecting 
therein  the  assistance  of  Almighty  God,  to  defend  the  good 
people  of  this  colony  from  the  said  Major  Andross'  attempts." 
After  commanding  all  the  people,  in  the  king's  name,  to  resist 
the  demands  of  Andross,  and  on  no  account  to  obey  him  or 
lend  him  any  countenance,  in  any  proceedings  contrary  to 

*  I  cannot  doubt  for  a  moment  as  to  the  authorship  of  this  remarkable  letter. 
Indeed,  there  was  but  one  man  then  living  in  New  England  who  could  have 
framed  it.  The  mastei-ly  use  of  language,  the  adroitness  with  which  conclusions 
so  startling  are  drawn  from  premises  so  innocent,  its  politeness,  its  firmness,  its 
childlike  transparency  of  language  giving  forth  a  light  that  can  neither  dazzle  nor 
mislead — in  a  word,  its  exquisite  diplomatic  touch — betrays  the  hand  of  John 
Winthrop  in  every  line.  The  whole  letter  may  be  found  in  vol.  ii.  of  J.  H. 
Trumbull's  Colonial  Records,  pp.  334,  335. 


[1675.]  .4:NDE0SS   AND   BULL.  293 

the  charter  and  the  laws  of  the  colony,  the  protest  closes 
with  the  loyal  words,  "  God  save  the  king."* 

This  protest  was  approved  by  every  member  of  the  Gen- 
eral Assembly,  and  sent  off  immediately  by  express  to  Say- 
brook,  with  instructions  to  Bull  to  propose  to  Major  Andross 
that  the  matter  in  dispute  should  be  referred  to  commis- 
sioners, to  meet  at  any  place  in  the  colony  that  he  might 
choose.f 

Early  on  the  morning  of  the  12th  of  July,  Major  Andross 
begged  that  he  might  be  permitted  to  go  on  shore  and  have 
an  interview  with  the  ministers  and  principal  officers.  This 
request  was  granted,  and  he  accordingly  landed  with  his 
suite.  While  this  was  going  on,  the  express  arrived  from 
Hartford  with  the  protest  and  letter  of  instructions.  With 
the  blunt  courtesy  that  was  befitting  a  man  of  his  straight- 
forward nature.  Captain  Bull,  accompanied  by  his  officers 
and  the  principal  gentlemen  of  the  town,  met  the  major  on 
the  beach  and  told  him  that  he  had  just  received  orders  to 
make  a  treaty  with  him,  and  told  him  of  the  terms. 

The  object  of  Andross  in  going  ashore,  was  to  intimidate 
the  officers  and  the  people,  by  reading  the  king's  new  patent 
to  the  Duke  of  York,  and  the  Duke's  commission  to  himself 
under  that  grant.  He,  therefore,  with  much  haughtiness, 
rejected  the  proposal  made  by  the  General  Assembly,  and  as 
he  and  his  retinue  had  now  come  within  hearing  distance  of 
Bull  and  his  companions,  he  commanded  his  clerk  to  read 
aloud  the  two  papers  that  gave  him  his  pretended  authority. 

Little  was  Major  Andross  aware  of  the  character  of  the 
man  with  whom  he  was  dealing.  With  an  authority  that 
seemed  to  set  at  defiance  both  king  and  duke,  Captain  Bull 
addressed  himself  to  the  clerk  and  imperiously  commanded 
him  to  forbear.  Balked  in  his  first  attempt,  the  secretary 
attempted  to  persist  in  the  execution  of  his  office. 

"Forbear!"  reiterated  the  captain,  in  a  tone  that  even 
Andross  himself  did  not  think  it  safe  to  oppose. 

*  Colonial  Records,  ii.  261,  262.         t  Trumbull,  i.  330. 


294:  HISTOEY   OF   CONNECTICUT. 

Major  Andross,  with  all  his  faults,  was  not  without  fine 
traits  of  character,  and  was  struck  with  a  soldier's  admira- 
tion at  the  coolness  and  intrepidity  of  the  captain. 

"  What  is  your  name  ?"  he  asked. 

"  My  name  is  Bull,  sir,"  was  the  prompt  answer. 

"Bull!"  responded  the  governor,  "It  is  a  pity  that  your 
horns  are  not  tipped  with  silver."* 

The  governor  saw  that  it  was  idle  to  attempt  to  overawe 
the  officers  or  the  inhabitants,  and  that  they  would  overpower 
him  with  numbers  should  he  resort  to  coercion. 

With  this  equivocal  compliment  to  the  captain,  and  with 
a  bitter  remark  on  the  ingratitude  of  the  colony  and  the 
meagerness  of  their  protest,  he  took  a  hasty  leave  of  them. 
With  a  politeness  that  could  hardly  have  been  agreeable  to 
him,  the  militia  of  the  town  escorted  him  to  his  boat.  In  a 
few  hours,  his  sloops  were  out  of  sight,  f 

The  General  Assembly  regarded  these  proceedings  of  An- 
dross not  only  as  illegal,  but  as  a  marked  insult  to  the  col- 
ony. After  having  read  a  detailed  account  of  what  had 
happened  at  Saybrook,  they  sent  a  declaration  to  the  several 
towns,  under  the  seal  of  the  colony  and  signed  by  its  secre- 
tary, to  be  published  to  all  the  inhabitants.  They  say  that 
"the  good  people  of  his  majesty's  colony  of  Connecticut 
have  met  with  much  trouble  and  molestation  from  Major 
Edmund  Andross'  challenge  and  attempts  to  surprise  the 
main  fort  of  said  colony,  which  they  have  so  rightfully  ob- 
tained, so  long  possessed  and  defended  against  all  invasions 
of  Dutch  and  Indians,  to  the  great  grievance  of  his  majesty's 
good  subjects  in  these  settlements,  and  to  despoil  the  happy 
government  by  charter  from  his  majesty  granted  to  them- 
selves, and  under  which  they  have  enjoyed  many  halcyon 
days  of  peace  and  tranquillity."  The  declaration  further 
informs  the  people  that  the  Assembly  had  desired  Mr.  Win- 
throp  and  Mr.  Richards,  who  were  about  to  visit  England, 
to  carry  with  them  a  copy  of  all  the  papers  relating  to  the 

*  Trumbull,  i.  330.         t  Trumbull. 


[1676.]  DEATH   OF   GOVERNOR   WINTHROP.  295 

invasion  of  Andross,  and  anticipate,  by  a  full  narrative  of 
the  affair,  any  false  statements  that  he  might  make  at  court 
to  the  prejudice  of  the  colony.* 

The  colony,  in  the  midst  of  her  successes,  was  destined  to 
suffer  the  keenest  anguish.  One  after  another,  her  patriarchs 
had  departed  from  her  borders  or  found  a  refuge  in  her 
bosom.  Winthrop  was  now  to  follow  them.  He  had  been 
chosen  a  commissioner  to  represent  her  in  the  Congress  of 
the  United  Colonies  in  May  1676,  and,  true  to  her  interests 
in  age  as  he  had  proved  himself  in  his  youth,  he  had  gone  to 
Boston  early  in  the  spring  of  1676  to  discharge  the  trust,  and 
to  lend  to  New  England  in  her  darkest  day,  the  light  of  his 
counsels.  There  he  was  taken  suddenly  ill,  and,  after  a 
brief  period  of  sickness,  died.f 

It  is  difScult  for  me  to  consider  him  as  an  individual  char- 
acter, so  inseparably  is  his  bright  image  blended  with  that 
of  the  colony  herself  during  the  most  doubtful  and  at  the 
same  time  most  glorious  period  of  her  existence.  An  ideal 
of  humanity,  setting  forth  upon  a  journey  that  was  to  involve 
the  exploration  of  paths  untried  and  wild ;  too  full  of  hope 
long  to  remain  distrustful  of  the  future  ;  too  sincere  a  believer 
in  the  revealed  will  of  God  to  doubt  the  comprehensiveness 
and  unfailing  resources  of  his  providence  ;  too  intelligent  and 
large-hearted  for  bigotry  on  the  one  hand ;  on  the  other,  too 
keenly  alive  to  the  thrill  of  those  finer  fibers  of  the  soul  that 
can  alone  ennoble  man's  nature  and  elevate  his  reason  into 
a  faculty  that  may  be  called  divine,  ever  to  become  a 
sceptic ;  a  fair  ideal,  rather  than  an  individual  man  with  the 
frailties  of  our  race  binding  him  to  the  earth  with  chains, 
does  he  sometimes  present  himself  to  my  contemplation. 
Whenever  we  would  revive  in  our  breasts  the  spirit  of  de- 
votion to  the  cause  of  liberty,  that  better  liberty  setting- 
bounds  to  itself  that  the  very  laws  of  its  being  will  not 
permit  it  to  pass ;  whenever  we  hallow  with  a  sigh  some 
half-forgotten  memory  of  those  early  days  when  the  sons  of 

*  Colonial  Records,  ii.  263,  264. 

t  IMather's  IMagiialia,  b.  ii.  p.  145  ;  Holmes,  i.  387. 


296  HISTORY   OF   CONNECTICUT. 

Connecticut  did  not  blush  to  own  their  parentage ;  when  we 
see  rash  youth  jostUng  gray-haired  age  aside,  and  hot  im- 
pulse blinding  the  eyes  of  wisdom  with  the  dust  of  his  char- 
iot-wheels as  he  drives  swiftly  past  on  his  destructive  career 
— then,  if  at  no  other  moment,  the  strong  bright  eye,  the 
benevolent  face,  with  its  indescribable  blending  of  caution 
and  enthusiasm,  reveals  to  us  the  Winthrop  of  the  old  time, 
such  as  the  poets  and  painters  of  a  day  yet  to  come  will 
delineate  him.  But  this  is  not  my  task,  and  I  return  to  give 
a  brief  account  of  the  Winthrop  of  history. 

John  Winthrop,  of  Connecticut,  was  the  oldest  son  of  the 
Hon.  John  Winthrop,  governor  of  Massachusetts,  and  was 
born  at  Groton  in  England,  in  the  year  1605.*     He  was  not 

*  The  Winthrops  are  said  to  have  come  from  ISTorthumberland,  whence  they 
lemoved  into  Nottinghamshire  and  settled  in  a  little  village  which  still  bears  the 
name  of  Winthrop,  near  Newark.  From  this  place  the  ancestors  of  the  American 
branch  of  the  family  went  to  London.  As  this  has  been  one  of  the  most  eminent 
families  in  New  England,  we  here  insert  the  Winthrop  genealogy  in  a  single 
line. 

1.  Adam  Winthrop,  a  lawyer  of  distinction,  soon  after  the  dissolution  of  the 
monasteries  by  Henry  VIII.,  was  lord  of  the  manor  of  Groton,  county  Suffolk, 
where  he  died,  and  was  buried  Nov.  12,  1562. 

2.  Adam  Winthrop  (his  son)  was  also  bred  to  the  law;  married  Anne 
Brovrae,  20  Feb.  1579.  His  burial  appears  upon  the  register  at  Groton,  29 
March,  1623. 

3.  John  Winthrop,  Governor  of  Massachusetts,  was  born  in  Groton,  12  Jan. 
1588;  came  to  New  England  in  1630;  died  in  Boston,  26  March,  1649.  He 
married  (1st)  Mary,  daughter  of  John  Forth,  Esq.,  of  Great  Stanbridge,  Essex, 
who  died  1615;  (2d)  Thomaslne,  daughter  of  Wm.  Clopton,  who  died  1616 ; 
(3d)  Margaret,  daughter  of  Sir  John  Tindale,  Kt.,  who  died  1647. 

4.  John  Winthrop,  F.  R.  S.,  Governor  of  Connecticut,  was  born  in  Groton,  12 
Feb.  1606.  His  first  wife  was  Martha  Fones ;  his  second,  Elizabeth  Read, 
daughter  of  a  widow  whom  the  famous  Hugh  Peters  afterwards  married.  He 
died  April  5,  1676. 

5.  Fitz  John  Winthrop,  F.  R.  S.,  Governor  of  Connecticut,  was  born  in  Ips- 
wich, Mass.,  14  March,  1639;  died  in  Boston,  17  Nov.  1717.  5.  Wait  Still 
Winthrop  (brother  of  Fitz  John)  was  Chief  Justice  of  Massachusetts ;  he  died  in 
Boston  about  1688. 

6.  John  Winthrop,  F.  R.  S.  (son  of  Wait  Still,)  born  in  New  London,  26  Aug. 
1681 ;  married  Anna,  daughter  of  Gov.  .loscph  Dudley.     lie  died  1  Aug.  1747. 

7.  John  Still  Winthrop,  born  15  Jan.  1720;  died  6  June  1776.  His  wife 
was  Jane,  daughter  of  Francis  Borland,  of  Boston,  and  granddaughter  of  the 


CnARACTER    OF  WINTHROP.  297 

only  the  eldest  son,  but  he  was  also  the  darling  and  idol  of 
his  father's  heart,  who  educated  him  at  Trinity  College, 
Dublin.  I  am  able  to  find  in  the  annals  of  that  day,  nothing 
more  lovely  and  confiding  than  the  letters  written  by  this 
excellent  father  to  a  son  of  such  promise  that  every  eye 
turned  towards  him  with  interest  while  the  youth  was  still 
growing  in  stature  and  wisdom,  and  while  his  character  was 
blossoming  with  sentiments  that  afterwards  ripened  into 
great  thoughts  and  noble  actions.  Even  if  the  elder  Win- 
throp  had  not  been  a  historical  character,  we  should  seem  to 
know  him  as  a  kindly  neighbor  and  friend  from  the  charming 
tone  of  these  letters.  Other  fathers,  in  writing  to  their  ab- 
sent sons,  usually  pen  their  doubts  and  fears,  and  qualify 
their  expressions  of  love  with  those  of  parental  solicitude. 
Most  fathers  dictate  to  their  sons  what  course  to  pursue 
when  absent  from  home,  and  assume  a  demeanor  and  show 
of  patriarchal  authority.  But  Winthrop  takes  a  different 
course.  He  opens  his  whole  heart  to  the  boy  as  a  lover 
would  whisper  his  passion  in  the  ear  of  his  betrothed.  He 
keeps  nothing  from  his  favorite.  His  large  family,  his  many 
expenses,  the  engrossing  cares  of  business,  the  anxieties  that 
his  other  children  give  him,  are  all  told  with  the  charming 
simplicity  of  aflfection.  At  the  same  time  he  bids  him  spend 
freely  whatever  money  his  circumstances  appear  to  indicate 
as  requisite  to  maintain  the  position  of  a  gentleman's  son  at 
a  university. 

"  I  purposed,"  he  says  in  one  of  these  letters,  "  to  send  you 
by  this  bearer  such  books  as  you  wrote  for ;  only  Aristotle 
I  can  not,  because  your  uncle  Fones  is  not  at  London  to 
buy  it,  and  I  know  not  whether  you  would  have  Latin  or 
Greek.     I  purpose  also  to  send  you  cloth  for  a  gown  and 

Hon.  T.  Lindall,  of  Salem,  Judge  of  the  Superior  Court  and  Speaker  of  the  Pro- 
vincial Legislature. 

8.  Thomas  Lindall  "Winthrop,  LL.D.,  Lieut.  Governor  of  Massachusetts,  was 
born  6  March  1760  ;  died  22  Feb.  1841. 

9.  Robert  Charles  Winthrop,  LL.D.,  of  Boston,  Speaker  of  the  United  States 
House  of  Representatives ;  United  States  Senator.' 


298  HISTORY  OF  CONNECTICUT. 

suit ;  but  for  a  study  gown,  you  had  best  buy  some  coarse 
Irish  cloth.* 

It  may  be  interesting  to  the  reader  to  know  more  about 
the  history  of  the  suit  of  clothes  and  the  gown,  that  were 
both  in  danger  of  being  outgrown  by  this  college  youth,  who, 
as  we  shall  see  by  the  following  extract  from  another  com- 
munication, had  not  yet  attained  his  full  stature  :  "  You  may 
line  your  gown  with  some  warm  baize,  and  wear  it  out,  for 
else  you  will  soon  outgrow  it,  and  if  you  be  not  already  in  a 
frieze  jerkin  I  wish  you  to  get  one  speedily ;  and  howsoever 
you  clothe  yourself  when  you  stir,  be  sure  you  keep  warm 
when  you  study  or  sleep.  I  send  you  no  money,  because  you 
may  have  of  your  uncle  what  you  need."f 

It  does  not  require  a  very  lively  imagination  in  any  one 
who  is  familiar  with  the  Winthrop  portrait,  to  figure  to  him- 
self the  appearance  of  the  future  governor  of  Connecticut 
poring  over  the  pages  of  Aristotle  of  a  winter  evening,  pro- 
tected from  the  cold  by  that  warm  baize  lining  and  frieze 
jerkin.  The  youth  may  be  fairly  presumed  to  have  followed 
his  father's  advice  and  worn  out  the  gown  at  the  elbows  long 
before  he  outgrew  it.  The  appellations,  "loving  son."  "son 
John,"  "  well  beloved,"  and  other  expressions  of  endearment, 
abound  in  all  these  communications,  not  only  during  the 
young  man's  stay  at  the  university,  but  down  to  the  time 
when  death  separated  them. 

After  he  had  finished  his  academical  course  with  great 
honor,  in  order  that  nothing  might  be  wanting  to  develop 
his  faculties,  young  Winthrop  was  sent,  (a  rare  accomplish- 
ment in  those  days,)  to  make  the  tour  of  Europe.  He 
accordingly  traveled  in  France,  Germany,  Holland,  Italy  and 
Turkey.  Thus,  before  he  had  entered  upon  his  twenty-fifth 
year,  he  was  a  thorough  scholar,  was  possessed  of  liberal 

*  Savage's  Winthrop,  i.  404.  In  the  Appendix  to  the  first  volume  of  Win- 
throp's  History,  Mr.  Savage  has  given  sixty-four  family  letters,  nearly  all  of 
which  were  written  by  the  elder  John  Winthrop  to  his  son. 

X  lb.,  i.  405. 


CHAEACTER   OF   WINTHEOP.  299 

views,  a  deep  knowledge  of  the  world  in  its  varied  aspects, 
and  the  most  elegant  and  courtly  manners. 

In  1631  he  sailed  with  his  father  for  America,*  and  was 
chosen  a  magistrate  of  Massachusetts.  He  soon  after  went 
back  to  England,  but  in  1635  returned,  as  I  have  informed 
the  reader  in  another  place,  with  a  commission  to  build  a  fort 
at  the  mouth  of  the  Connecticut  river,  and  to  hold  the  place 
of  governor  of  that  river.  In  1651,  he  was  chosen  into  the 
magistracy  of  Connecticut.  In  1657,  he  was  elected  gover- 
nor of  the  colony,  and  in  1658,  he  was  made  deputy  gover- 
nor; in  1659  he  was  again  placed  at  the  head  of  the  magis- 
tracy.! 

The  rest  of  his  history  I  have  already  attempted  to  set 
forth,  and  can  add  little  to  what  I  have  said.  His  life  and 
character  may  be  gathered  from  his  state  papers,  his  letters, 
his  counsels  and  his  deeds.  He  was  one  of  the  first  chemists 
of  his  age,  was  an  excellent  physician,  and  as  a  diplomatist 
and  statesman  he  had  no  superior  in  his  day. 

Though  his  bones  repose  in  a  sister  colony,  whither  he  had 
gone  in  the  service  of  Connecticut,  yet  his  heart  was  hers  to 
its  last  beat.  It  must  have  taken  away  something  from  the 
bitterness  of  death,  that  though  away  from  home  he  was  not 
among  strangers,  and  that  friendly  hands  would  place  his 
remains  in  the  same  tomb  with  those  of  his  honored  father, 
to  await  the  signal  that  they  both  believed  would  burst  the 
bonds  of  the  sepulchre,  and  leave  them  free  in  the  enjoyment 
of  a  new  intercourse,  more  spiritual,  more  pure  and  delightful 
than  the  old. 

*  See  Mather's  Magnalia,  b.  ii.  143  ;  Trumbull,  i,  345. 
+  Colonial  Records. 


CHAPTER  XIV. 


ADmNISTRlTION  OF  ANDEOSS. 


At  the  close  of  Philip's  War,  Connecticut  found  herself 
deeply  involved  in  debt.  She  had  indeed  kept  that  dan- 
gerous enemy  from  her  borders,  and  her  women  and  children 
had  been  spared  the  horrors  of  captivity,  and  had  been  kept 
safe  from  the  pitiless  edge  of  the  scalping-knife.  Still,  she 
had  suffered  much.  Her  noble  corps  of  volunteers  had  been 
kept  in  constant  service.  A  large  proportion  of  her  brave 
men  had  been  continually  on  duty  at  home,  keeping  watch 
and  ward  in  their  respective  towns.  They  were  obliged  to 
build  forts,  to  construct  palisades  about  their  settlements  and 
around  those  houses  that  were  selected  on  account  of  their 
position  or  strength,  as  fit  places  of  refuge  for  the  infirm  and 
the  old,  helpless  infancy  and  defenseless  womanhood. 

But  heavy  as  was  her  expenditure,  the  republic  lost  no 
time  in  regaining  her  former  independent  position.  For 
three  years  after  the  war  began,  her  freeholders  submitted  to 
the  tedious  tax  of  eleven  pence  on  the  pound  upon  the  grand 
list,  besides  paying  all  the  customary  town  and  parish  rates. 
To  discharge  her  public  debt,  an  additional  tax  of  eight  pence 
upon  the  pound  was  now  fixed  for  two  years.*  The  colony, 
it  was  hoped,  might  repose  upon  her  laurels  now  that  Philip 
was  dead  and  the  Narragansetts  were  crushed  to  the  earth. 

The  General  Assembly  determined  that  Connecticut 
should  be  remunerated  for  her  services  in  the  late  war,  by 
taking  possession  of  that  large  tract  of  country  whence  the 
brave  Denison  and  his  volunteers  had  driven  the  subjects  of 
Nanuntenoo — a  country  that  Rhode  Island  had  failed  to  de- 
fend. The  Assembly  set  at  defiance  the  decision  of  Nichols 
*  Colonial  K.ccords. 


BOUNDARY   QUESTIONS.  301 

and  his  fellow  commissioners,  making  the  Narragansett 
country  and  Rhode  Island  a  king's  province,  as  it  was 
averred  that  these  gentlemen  were  not  clothed  with  power 
to  make  such  new  colonies.  The  agreement  made  between 
Mr.  Winthrop  and  Mr.  Clark  they  also  repudiated,  as  it  was 
subsequent  to  the  charter  and  completed  without  the  author- 
ity of  the  colony  delegated  to  Winthrop.  Besides,  it  was 
claimed  that  the  charter  of  Rhode  Island  recognized  but  one 
article  of  that  agreement,  and  that  all  the  other  parts  of  it 
had  always  been  disregarded  by  the  inhabitants  of  Rhode 
Island.  Many  instances  were  speciously  given,  wherein  it 
was  alleged  that  they  had  invaded  the  property  of  the  settlers 
named  in  those  articles,  driven  off  their  cattle,  burned  their 
fences,  and  pulled  down  their  houses.*  That  Connecticut 
behaved  in  this  matter  after  the  custom  that  governs  power- 
ful states  in  their  relations  with  weaker  ones,  I  have  good 
cause  to  believe.  Why  should  she  be  expected  to  form  an 
exception  to  a  rule  that  has  never  been  violated  perhaps 
since  the  foundation  of  civil  politics  in  the  world  ? 

Edward  Hutchinson,  William  Hudson,  and  others,  claim- 
ants of  a  large  tract  of  land  in  the  Pequot  and  Narragansett 
country,  also  applied  to  the  Assembly  for  relief  against 
Rhode  Island  and  found  a  ready  response  to  their  suit.f 

Were  I  to  go  fully  into  the  details  of  all  the  boundary 
questions  that  from  time  to  time  employed  our  common- 
wealth the  first  hundred  and  fifty  years,  I  should  fill  a  volume 
that  might  better  be  devoted  to  documentary  history.  There 
was  doubtless  blame  on  both  sides. 

Although  Connecticut  had  made  such  efforts  to  prevent  a 
false  construction  being  put  upon  her  conduct  at  court  in 
the  Andross  affair,  she  did  not  succeed  as  she  had  hoped. 
Winthrop,  the  powerful  mediator  between  her  and  the  king, 
could  no  longer  lend  her  his  assistance  in  the  hour  of  trial. 
The  charmed  ring  had  lost  its  spell,  the  eloquent  voice  could 
plead  her  cause  no  more.  Enemies  now  began  to  thicken 
around    her.      Among   others    who    had    now   learned    her 


*  Trumbull,  i.  353.     f  See  J.  H.  Trumbull's  Colonial  Records,  ii.  553,  589,  590. 


302  HISTORY   OF   CONNECTICUT. 

friendless  condition,  was  that  common  scourger  of  all  the 
New  England  colonies,  the  dark,  ill-boding  man — Edward 
Randolph. 

In  1676,  he  arrived  in  Boston  and  commenced  a  series  of 
vexations  and  interferences  that  only  ended  with  his  death. 
He  was  in  the  habit  of  returning  to  England  every  autumn, 
and  there  pouring  into  the  royal  ear  the  poisonous  slanders 
that  he  had  so  industriously  distilled  during  the  summer.  In 
the  spring  he  would  return  and  pass  the  time  in  fomenting 
dissensions  among  the  people,  and  exercising  over  them  the 
tyranny  that  was  so  natural  to  him.  His  pastime  was  the 
lively  one  of  writing  letters  to  the  king's  ministers  and  favor- 
ites, complaining  of  the  opposition  that  he  found  in  New 
England  to  the  trade  and  navigation  laws.  This  ambitious 
man  was  possessed  of  no  ordinary  abilities,  and  was  stimu- 
lated to  action  by  an  intense  desire  of  self-aggrandizement  that 
would  never  allow  him  to  rest  until  he  should,  if  possible,  have 
built  for  himself  a  monument  upon  the  ruins  of  the  colonies.* 

On  account  of  the  gloomy  prospects  of  the  colonies,  the 
Congress  recommended  a  general  fast,  that  the  people  might 
humble  themselves  with  prayer.  In  conformity  with  this 
request,  Connecticut  appointed  the  third  Tuesday  of  No- 
vember 1678,  for  a  day  of  humiliation. 

In  May  1679,  the  General  Assembly,  with  a  view  to  pre- 
vent the  people  of  Rhode  Island,  and  others,  from  taking  pos- 
session of  lands  in  Narragansett,  enacted  that  none  of  the 
conquered  lands  should  be  taken  up  or  laid  out  into  farms 
without  special  orders  from  the  Assembly. 

This  question  of  jurisdiction  began  now  to  assume  a 
serious  aspect.  In  September  1679,  Governor  Cranston,  of 
Rhode  Island,  held  a  court  in  Narragansett.  The  matter 
kept  growing  worse,  until,  on  the  7th  of  April  1683,  the  king 
granted  a  commission  to  Edward  Cranfield,  Esq.,  lieutenant 
governor  of  New  Hampshire,  William  Stoughton,  Joseph 
Dudley,  Edward  Randolph,  Samuel  Shrimpton,  John  Fitz 

*  In  a  representation  of  his  services  to  the  committee  of  council,  ho  boasts  of 
having  made  eight  voyages  to  New  England  in  nine  years. 


[1683.]  THE   HAMILTON   CLAIM.  303 

Winthrop,  Edward  Palmes,  Nathaniel  Saltonstall,  and  John 
Pyncheon,  jr.,  Esquires,  or  any  three  of  them,  of  whom  Cran- 
field  or  Randolph  should  constitute  one,  to  examine  into  the 
claims  as  well  of  the  crown  as  of  all  other  persons  and  cor- 
porations, to  the  jurisdiction  and  title  of  a  certain  tract  of 
land  within  his  majesty's  dominion  of  New  England,  called 
the  king's  province  or  Narragansett  country.* 

On  the  22d  of  August  of  the  same  year,  the  commissioners 
met  at  the  house  of  Richard  Smith  in  the  disputed  territory. 
They  cited  all  parties  interested  in  the  subject-matter  of 
their  commission  to  appear  before  them  with  their  charters, 
deeds,  and  other  exhibits,  under  which  they  pretended  to 
have  derived  a  title.  These  gentlemen,  after  a  full  hearing 
of  the  evidence,  adjourned  to  Boston,  where  they  made  a 
report  to  the  king,  declaring  that  the  jurisdiction  of  the 
country  was  in  the  colony  of  Connecticut.!  The  joy  that 
attended  this  victory  gained  by  Connecticut  over  the  king 
and  the  colony  of  Rhode  Island,  was  qualified  by  the  appear- 
ance of  another  enemy,  more  formidable  because  more 
malicious. 

On  the  30th  of  June  1683,  Edward  Randolph  had  received 
a  power  of  attorney  from  William  and  Anne,  duke  and 
duchess  of  Hamilton,  and  James,  earl  of  Aran,  their  son,  and 
grandson  of  James,  marquis  of  Hamilton,  to  sue  and  receive 
their  right  of  interest  in  lands,  islands,  houses,  and  tenements 
in  New  England.  This  representative  of  his  betters,  in  the 
discharge  of  his  duties  under  the  power,  hastened  to  appear 
before  the  commissioners  at  Boston,  and  in  the  name  of  his 
principals  claimed  title  to  the  Narragansett  country  by  a 
deed  that  bore  date  1635.  These  new  parties  of  course  had 
a  right  to  a  full  hearing,  and  had  one  at  great  length.  Con- 
necticut made  an  admirable  defense,  and  one  that  was  truly 
unanswerable.  So  it  was  afterwards  found  to  be  when  in- 
vestigated by  the  learned  Trevor  and  that  unrivalled  author- 
ity, Sir  Francis  Pemberton.     "  Marquis  Hamilton,"  says  Sir 

*  Trumbull,  i.  358. 

t  This  report  may  be  found  in  full  in  Trumbull,  i.  359,  360. 


304  HISTOEY  OF  CONNECTICUT. 

Francis  in  his  able  opinion,  "  nor  his  heirs,  or  any  deriving 
from  him,  have  ever  had  possession  or  laid  out  any  thing 
upon  the  premises,  nor  made  any  claim  in  said  country,  until 
the  year  1683,  which  was  about  forty-eight  years  after  said 
grant."  Mr.  Trevor  advised  that  the  grant  to  Rhode 
Island  was  not  valid  in  law,  being  subsequent  to  the  grant  to 
Connecticut. 

The  colony  meanwhile  received  letters  from  the  king, 
giving  information  of  a  conspiracy  against  himself  and  his 
brother,  the  duke  of  York.  The  General  Assembly  replied 
in  a  very  sensible  and  respectful  manner,  that  they  were 
much  shocked  at  the  tidings,  and  that  for  themselves  "  they 
prayed  for  kings  and  all  men,  and  especially  for  his  majesty 
-and  all  in  authority  under  him;  that  they  feared  God  and 
honored  the  king."* 

New  complaints  were  now  framed  against  the  colonies,  a 
share  of  which  fell  to  Connecticut.  It  was  reported  and 
believed  in  England  that  the  colonies  favored  piracy  and 
harbored  pirates,  and  in  support  of  this  charge  it  was  averred 
that  no  laws  had  been  passed  in  New  England  against  that 
crime.  A  letter  was  written  by  the  king's  order  to  the  gov- 
ernor and  company,  demanding  that  a  law  should  be  passed 
for  the  suppression  of  that  offense,  so  much  abhorred  by  all 
good  men,  and  so  directly  in  violation  of  the  law  of  nations 
as  well  as  of  the  law  of  England.  On  the  5th  of  July  1684, 
therefore,  a  special  assembly  was  called  and  a  law  passed 
against  piracy,  a  copy  whereof  was  forthwith  sent  to  the 
king's  secretary  of  state. 

As  early  as  1673,  a  number  of  the  citizens  of  Farmington 
had  presented  their  petition  to  the  General  Assembly,  pray- 
ing that  a  committee  might  be  appointed  to  view  Mattatuck, 
and  make  their  report,  whether  the  lands  there  were  suffi- 
ciently fertile  to  maintain  a  plantation.  The  committee  was 
sent  out,  and  in  May  1674  reported  to  the  Assembly  that 
Mattatuck  could  accommodate  thirty  families. f  The  Gen- 
eral Assembly  then  appointed  a  second  committee  to  super- 

*  Colonial  Records.        t  Colonial  Records. 


[1686.]  WATEEBUET.  806 

intend  the  proposed  settlement.  The  number  of  planters 
who  owned  shares  in  the  Mattatuck  lands  at  the  commence- 
ment of  this  enterprise  was  less  than  thirty.  In  May  1686, 
they  were  invested  with  corporate  privileges,  and  exchanged 
the  aboriginal  name  for  that  of  Waterhury.  Its  beginnings 
were  not  prosperous,  nor  were  its  prospects  at  all  flattering 
for  many  years.  Although  the  site  of  the  town  was  not  un- 
pleasant, and  the  meadows  that  bordered  the  river  were  very 
inviting,  yet  the  people  were  long  pursued  by  a  variety  of 
calamities. 

In  February  1691,  the  town  was  almost  destroyed  by  an 
inundation.  The  rain  fell  in  such  abundance  that  the  Nau- 
gatuck  rose  to  a  great  height,  and  swept  through  the  valley 
with  such  terrible  violence,  that  the  soil  of  the  meadows  was 
torn  and  washed  down  with  the  current,  and  the  whole  sur- 
face of  the  fields  was  left  rough  and  disfigured  with  loose 
stones.  Many  of  the  people,  shocked  at  the  desolation 
wrought  by  the  flood,  abjured  their  homes  and  fled  from  the 
town  forever.  In  the  fall  of  1712,  the  place  was  almost 
depopulated  by  an  epidemic,  that  left  scarcely  enough  living 
inhabitants  to  attend  upon  the  sick  and  minister  the  last  rites 
to  the  dead.* 

Indeed,  for  many  years,  and  until  the  commencement  of 
the  present  century,  Waterbury  was  not  thought  to  be  a  town 
that  could  offer  any  very  strong  inducements  to  those  who 
were  seeking  a  favorable  situation  for  a  permanent  abode. 

But  a  change  has  come  over  the  aspect  of  the  place,  that 
reminds  us  of  the  transformations  that  we  find  in  tales  of 
Arabian  enchantment.  The  river,  once  so  destructive  to 
those  who  dwelt  upon  its  banks,  though  sometimes  even 
now  in  its  more  gamesome  moods  it  loses  its  self-control  and 
deluges  the  lands  and  houses  of  the  inhabitants,  is  no  longer 
the  instrument  of  destruction  to  them,  but  is,  notwithstand- 
ing its  lively  looks  and  the  racy  joyousness  of  its  motions, 
their  common  drudge  and  plodding  laborer  in  all  depart- 
ments of  their  manifold  enterprises.     The  difference  between 

*  Trumbull,  i.  367. 
20 


806  HISTORY   OF   CONNE.CTICUT. 

the  twenty-eight  families  at  Mattatuck,  flying  from  the 
meager  settlement  where  poverty,  inundation  and  disease 
threatened  their  extermination,  and  the  young  city  of  Water- 
bury,  with  its  stone  church  towers,  its  rich  mansions,  its 
manufactories  and  its  population  that  is  now  numbered  by 
thousands,  affords  to  a  reflectiye  mind  a  practical  illustration 
scarcely  equalled  even  upon  the  prairies  of  the  west,  of  the 
self-renewing  vigor  and  boundless  exuberance  of  health  that 
characterizes  the  blood  of  the  old  pioneers  of  New  England. 
The  Naugatuck  valley,  but  a  few  years  ago  unknown,  almost 
unexplored  even  by  the  citizens  of  Hartford  and  New  Haven, 
is  now  one  of  the  most  interesting  and  busy  thoroughfares  in 
New  England.  How  long  it  will  be  before  the  traveler  who 
takes  his  seat  in  the  train  at  Derby,  will  be  able  to  journey 
its  whole  length  to  Winsted, without  once  losing  sight  of  brick 
stores  and  stone  manufactories  standing  by  the  stream,  and 
graceful  white  houses  perched  upon  the  hill-sides  on  either 
hand,  let  the  prophetic  decide.  I  have  only  to  do  with  the 
past. 

The  insertion  of  the  settlement  of  Waterbury  in  this  place, 
according  to  its  chronological  order,  will  not  call  for  an  excuse. 
Let  us  now  return  to  the  general  history  of  that  period. 

During  the  latter  years  of  th^  reign  of  Charles  II.  the  king 
had  become  so  reckless  of  his  pledges  and  his  faith,  that  he 
did  not  scruple  to  set  the  dangerous  example  of  violating  the 
charters  that  had  been  granted  by  the  crown.  Owing  to  the 
friendship  that  the  king  entertained  for  Winthrop,  we  have 
seen  that  Connecticut  was  favored  by  him  to  a  degree  even 
after  the  death  of  that  great  man.  But  no  sooner  had  Charles 
demised  and  the  sceptre  passed  into  the  hands  of  his  bigoted 
brother.  King  James  11.,  than  Connecticut  was  called  upon 
to  contend  against  her  sovereign  for  liberties  that  had  been 
affirmed  to  her  by  the  most  solemn  muniments  known  to  the 
law  of  England. 

The  accession  of  James  II.  took  place  on  the  6th  day  of 
February  1685,  and  such  was  his  haste  to  violate  the  honor 
of  the    crown,  that   early  in  the  summer  of   1685    a  quo 


[1686.]  QUO  WAREANTOS.  307 

warranto  was  issued  against  the  governor  and  company  of 
Connecticut,  citing  them  to  appear  before  the  king,  within 
eight  days  of  St.  Martin's,  to  show  by  what  right  and  tenor 
they  exercised  certain  powers  and  privileges.* 

On  the  6th  of  July  1686,  the  governor  of  Connecticut 
called  a  special  assembly  to  take  measures  to  procure  the 
chartered  rights  of  the  colony.  The  assembly  that  day 
addressed  a  letter  to  his  majesty,  praying  him,  "  to  pardon 
their  faults  in  government  and  continue  them  a  distinct 
colony."  The  burden  of  their  prayer  was,  that  he  would 
"recall  the  writ  of  quo  warranto."!  Never  was  a  supplica- 
tion more  utterly  disregarded. 

On  the  21st  of  the  same  month,  came  that  old  and  dreaded 
enemy  of  the  colonies,  Edward  Randolph,  and  brought  with 
him  two  writs  of  quo  warranto,  which  he  delivered  to  Gov- 
ernor Treat.  The  day  of  appearance  named  in  them  was 
passed,  long  before  the  writs  were  served. 

On  receiving  these  formidable  documents,  accompanied 
with  a  letter  from  Richard  Normansel,  one  of  the  sheriffs 
of  London,  Governor  Treat  called  another  special  assembly, 
that  met  on  the  28th  of  July,  Mr.  Whiting  was  immediately 
appointed  the  agent  of  the  colony  to  repair  to  England  and 
present  its  petition  before  the  king.  He  was  instructed  to 
inform  his  majesty  at  what  a  late  day  the  writs  had  arrived, 
so  that  it  was  impossible  that  the  colony  should  have  had  a 
hearing  at  the  time  and  place  named  in  them.  He  was  fur- 
ther directed  to  represent  how  great  injuries  the  colony 
would  sustain  by  a  loss  of  its  charter,  and  more  particularly 
by  a  dismemberment  of  its  territory.  Should  the  agent  fail 
in  this  matter,  he  was  ordered  to  implore  the  king  to  con- 
tinue inviolate  the  enjoyment  of  property  among  them,  and 
above  all  that  he  would  preserve  to  them  their  religious 
privileges.  J 

*  Chalmers,  b.  i.  295;  Trumbull,  i.  367.  The  articles  of  high  misdemeanor, 
which  were  exhibited  against  the  governor  and  company,  are  in  Chahners,  b.  i. 
301 — 404.     They  are  signed  by  Edmund  Randolph. 

t  Colony  Records,  (MS)  vol.  iii.  182,  183.         t  Colony  Records. 


308  HISTORY  OF  CONNECTICUT. 

In  this  slate  of  uncertainty  the  affair  rested,  until,  on  the 
28th  of  December,  another  writ  of  quo  warranto  was  served 
upon  the  governor  and  company  of  the  colony.  This  writ 
bore  date  the  23d  of  October,  and  required  the  defendants  to 
appear  before  the  king  "  within  eight  days  of  the  purification 
of  the  Blessed  Virgin."  The  crown  lawyer  who  drew  it, 
must  have  laughed  heartily  at  the  most  catholic  and  mystical 
return  day  mentioned  in  a  citation  wherein  puritans  were 
the  parties  summoned.  It  is  not  at  all  likely  that  they  had 
informed  themselves  as  to  the  time  of  that  event,  so  interest- 
ing to  King  James,  nor  could  they  dream,  even  were  the 
day  of  purification  fairly  known  to  them,  on  what  one  of 
those  eight  days  the  king  would  graciously  attend  upon 
them.* 

The  scribe  might  as  well  have  said,  within  eight  days  of 
the  time  when  the  king's  soul  shall  have  been  released  from 
purgatory.  Of  course,  the  day  named  was  not  known  to 
the  English  law,  and  was,  therefore,  no  day  at  all  in  legal 
contemplation. 

I  have  hitherto  in  this  work,  attempted  to  speak  of  all 
dignitaries  with  respect ;  but  this  piece  of  royal  jugglery,  so 
unworthy  of  a  man,  not  to  say  of  a  king,  deserves  all  repro- 
bation, and  has  not  even  the  convenient  cloak  of  bigotry  and 
superstition  to  hide  its  meanness. f  It  is  a  political  trick 
that  any  one  of  the  courtly  Plantaganets  or  blunt  Tudors 
would  have  been  incapable  of  practicing,  and  one  that  the 
grandfather,  father,  and  brother  of  King  James,  would  have 
scorned  to  be  thought  guilty  of  Long  before  his  ignomin- 
ious reign,  still  marked  in  British  history  for  its  imbecility, 
its  cruelty,  its  wanton  violation  of  every  principle  of  the 
constitution,  and  its  disregard  both  of  the  forms  and  spirit  of 
the  law,  a  royal  charter  had  been  settled  to  be  an  irrevocable 
thing  so  long  as  its  terms  were  kept  sacredly  by  the  grantees ; 

*  The  parties  summoned  might  also  have  asked  with  propriety  whether 
"within  eight  days  "  hafore  or  after  the  event  designated,  was  intended  by  his 
majesty. 

t  See  Wade,  251, 252. 


OTHER  CHARTERS  REVOKED.  809 

and  from  immemorial  time  it  had  been  the  right  of  the  sub- 
ject to  be  duly  cited  to  appear,  before  any  right  could  be 
taken  from  him.  Before  this  unoffending  colony  was  perfid- 
iously stabbed  in  the  dark  by  the  government,  nearly  fifty 
corporations  in  England  had  been  robbed  of  their  charters, 
through  various  pretexts,  and  so  shallow  and  untenable  that 
an  honorable  barrister  might  feel  ashamed  to  stand  up  and 
show  cause  why  they  should  not  prevail.  Even  the  city  of 
London,  herself  a  mighty  empire,  after  going  through  the 
form  of  a  trial,  had  lost  her  corporate  privileges.  The  char- 
ter of  Massachusetts  had  fallen  a  prey  to  the  same  rapacity, 
and  that  of  Rhode  Island,  enjoyed  for  such  a  brief  space  of 
time,  had  been  surrendered.*  A  general  government  had 
been  appointed  over  all  New  England  with  the  exception  of 
Connecticut,  and  even  from  her,  the  Narragansett  country, 
already  declared  to  be  hers  by  the  commissioners  named  by 
King  Charles  II.,  had  been  recklessly  taken  away.  This 
general  government  of  New  England  was  instituted  under  a 
commission  granted  during  the  first  year  of  the  new  mon- 
arch's reign,  and  in  it  Joseph  Dudley  was  named  president 
of  the  commissioners.  President  Dudley,  in  pursuance  of 
his  official  duty,  thereupon  on  the  28th  of  May  1686,  had 
sent  abroad  a  proclamation  "  discharging  all  the  inhabitants 
of  Rhode  Island  and  Narragansetts  from  obedience  either  to 
Connecticut  or  Rhode  Island,  and  prohibiting  all  government 
of  either  in  the  king's  province."! 

The  authorities  of  Connecticut  could  not  fail  to  be  alarmed 
at  the  threatening  attitude  of  affairs.  They  had  good  cause 
to  believe  that  judgment  would  be  entered  up  against  them, 
through  default  of  appearance  to  defend,  when  no  day  had 
been  named  in  the  writ  of  quo  warranto,  yet  they  attempted 
to  withstand  the  approaching  shock,  and  still  dared  to  hope 
that  in  the  midst  of  the  fallen  columns  of  other  temples, 
theirs  might  keep  its  place.  Governor  Treat,  who  has  been 
much  commended  as  a  warrior  by  all  our  historical  writers 

*  Callender,  47  ;  Adams  ;  Hutchinson.         t  Trumbull,  i.  3G9. 


810  HISTOEY  OF  CONNECTICUT. 

who  have  treated  of  the  period  in  which  he  lived,  and  who 
was  no  less  preeminent  as  a  civilian,  summoned  up  all  his 
resolution  to  meet  the  emergencies  of  that  critical  time. 
On  the  26th  of  January  1687,  and  after  the  reception  of  the 
third  writ  of  quo  warranto,  he  called  a  special  assembly  to 
decide  on  the  steps  to  be  taken  by  the  colony.  But  the 
sad  representatives  of  the  people  with  trembling  lips 
begged  his  excellency,  with  the  advice  of  his  council,  to  do 
for  them  at  discretion  what  they  could  not  do  for  themselves, 
and  then  returned  to  their  homes. 

In  March  the  court  again  met  and  declared  by  their  vote 
that  "  they  did  not  see  sufficient  reason  to  vary  from  the 
answer  they  gave  Sir  Edmund  Andross  to  a  motion  of  sur- 
render in  January  last."  A  letter  was  ordered  to  be  sent 
to  Andross  in  the  name  of  the  court.* 

In  May  they  met  regularly  under  the  charter  and  made 
their  annual  choice  of  officers.  Treat  was  again  chosen 
governor.  The  General  Assembly  still  refused  to  direct 
what  measures  should  be  adopted.  Fear  paralyzed  all  their 
energies,  and  despair  began  to  cast  a  dark  shadow  over  their 
deliberations.  If  they  yielded  up  their  corporate  immunities, 
what  would  they  get  in  place  of  them  but  a  reckless  provin- 
cial government,  heavy  taxes,  unsettled  tenures,  broken  obli- 
gations, religious  persecutions  ?  For,  what  faith  could  they 
expect  him  to  keep  with  them,  who  only  two  years  before 
had  written  a  letter  to  Governor  Treatf  filled  with  fatherly 
promises  and  tender  recognition  of  their  corporate  existence  ? 

*  Colony  Records. 

t  This  letter,  addressed  by  James  11.  to  Governor  Treat,  bearing  date  the  26th 
of  June  1685,  is  one  of  the  most  bland  and  comforting  documents  to  be  found  on 
file  in  our  Department  of  State.  It  contains  also  a  most  absolute  admission  of  the 
validity  of  the  charter,  and  of  our  uniform  observance  of  its  terms.  In  it  the  king 
is  pleased  to  compliment  his  subjects  in  Connecticut  in  very  gracious  language, 
and  he  promises  to  extend  to  them  "  his  royal  care  and  protection  in  the  preserva- 
tion of  their  rights,  and  in  the  defense  and  security  of  their  persons  and  estates." 
The  letter  still  remains,  and  taken  with  the  other  documentary  evidences  to  bo 
found  in  the  same  depository,  it  is  a  monument  scarcely  equalled  in  the  annals  of 
the  world,  of  the  perfidy  and  corruption  of  the  false  and  grasping  monarch  who  is 
to  be  held  responsible  for  its  contents. 


[1686.]        ANDEOSS   GOVERNOR   OF  NEW   ENGLAND.  311 

On  the  other  hand,  if  they  resisted,  how  easy  would  it  be  for 
the  tyrant  to  declare  them  traitors?  With  the  deepest 
solicitude,  the  deputies  again  committed  their  distracted 
affairs  to  the  governor  and  council,  and  adjourned. 

Meanwhile,  Mr.  Whiting,  the  agent,  did  what  he  could  in 
England  to  prevent  a  consolidation  of  the  New  England 
colonies,  and  especially  to  keep  the  colony  that  he  repre- 
sented from  such  a  fate.  But  his  efforts  proved  of  no  avail. 
Accordingly,  on  the  15th  of  January  1687,  he  wrote  a  letter 
to  Governor  Treat,  informing  him  of  the  prospects  that 
awaited  Connecticut,  and  begging  that  the  governor  and 
council  would  send  one  or  more  of  their  own  number,  to 
defend  the  charter. 

On  the  15th  of  June,  a  special  assembly  was  called  to  take 
advice  as  to  the  propriety  of  adopting  this  course,  and  after 
due  consultation  it  was  thought  best  not  to  send  any  more 
agents  in  a  matter  where  so  skillful  a  diplomatist  as  Whi- 
ting had  failed.  He  was  desired  to  continue  his  services 
"  both  in  appearing  for  us  and  in  our  behalf  to  make  answer 
to  what  shall  be  objected  against  us,  and  generally  to  do 
whatever  shall  be  needful  to  be  done  for  us."  The  governor, 
deputy  governor,  and  assistants,  were  directed  to  present  the 
thanks  of  the  Assembly  to  Mr.  Whiting  for  his  services.* 

President  Dudley  had  already  addressed  a  letter  to  the 
governor  and  council,  advising  them  to  resign  the  charter 
into  the  king's  hands.  Should  they  do  so,  he  undertook  to 
use  his  influence  in  behalf  of  the  colony.  They  did  not 
deem  it  advisable  to  comply  with  the  request.  Indeed, 
they  had  hardly  time  to  do  so  before  the  old  commission 
was  broken  up,  and  a  new  one  granted,  superseding  Dud- 
ley and  naming  Sir  Edmund  Andross  governor  of  New 
England. 

Sir  Edmund  arrived  in  Boston  on  the  19th  of  December 
1686,t  and  the  next  day  he  published  his  commission  and 
took  the  government  into  his  hands.     Scarcely  had  he  estab- 
lished himself,  when  he  sent  a  letter  to  the  governor  and 
*  Colony  Records.         +  Washburn's  Judicial  Hist.  Mass.,  94, 126. 


312  HISTORY  OF  CONNECTICUT. 

company  of  Connecticut,  acquainting  them  with  his  appoint- 
ment, and  informing  them  that  he  was  commissioned  by  the 
king  to  receive  their  charter  if  they  would  give  it  up  to  him. 
He  begged  them,  as  they  would  give  him  a  favorable  oppor- 
tunity to  serve  them,  and  as  they  loved  and  honored  his 
majesty,  not  to  keep  it  back  any  longer. 

As  this  communication  did  not  bring  forward  the  much 
desired  paper.  Sir  Edmund  soon  after  addressed  another  to 
Governor  Treat,  in  which  he  said  that  he  had  just  received 
tidings  from  England  that  judgment  had  been  entered  upon 
default  in  the  writ  of  quo  warranto  brought  against  the  col- 
ony, and  that  he  should  soon  receive  the  king's  commands 
respecting  them.  He  earnestly  urged  the  company  to  antici- 
pate any  compulsory  steps  that  might  otherwise  be  taken, 
and  to  receive  the  gratitude  and  favor  of  their  sovereign,  by 
voluntarily  yielding  up  what  would  else  be  plucked  from 
them  by  force. 

When  this  last  epistle  was  received,  the  Assembly  was  in 
session,  and  it  was  forthwith  submitted  to  them,  in  connec- 
tion with  another  from  Colonel  Dungan  of  a  like  import.  If 
caution  is  one  trait  of  the  people  of  Connecticut,  the  reader 
has  by  this  time  learned  that  the  most  cool  and  persistent 
courage  is  another  that  they  possess  in  a  high  degree.  With 
one  voice,  the  Assembly  decided  to  stand  for  their  rights, 
and  hold  fast  to  the  charter.  Still,  that  caution  might  be 
duly  mingled  with  courage,  and  that  patience  might  have 
her  perfect  work  upon  them,  they  addressed  a  petition  to  the 
king,  earnestly  supplicating  him  to  preserve  those  privileges 
that  had  been  granted  to  them  by  his  royal  brother,  and  re- 
newed by  the  kind  assurances  in  his  own  gracious  letter  to 
their  governor.  If  this,  the  burden  of  their  prayers,  should 
be  denied  them,  they  beg  that  they  may  not  be  separated 
from  their  old  friends  in  Massachusetts,  and  that  they  may 
be  placed  under  the  government  of  Sir  Edmund  Andross.* 

This  alternative  request,  wrung  as  it  was  from  the  heart- 
agony  of  a  suffering  people,  was  artfully  construed  into  a 

*  Colony  Records. 


[1G87.]  GOVERNOR  ANDROSS  VISITS   HARTFORD.  313 

voluntary  resignation  of  their  ciiarter.*  Thus  was  a  sup- 
plication that  had  been  obtained  by  fraud  and  lies,  sought 
to  be  made  available  by  a  false  construction  too  gross  to 
deceive  even  the  weakest  mind.  As  well  might  a  martyr's 
prayer  for  hfe  uttered  in  the  cold  ears  of  his  inquisitors, 
closing  with  the  last  request  that,  if  he  must  die,  his  features 
may  not  be  mutilated  by  the  devilish  enginery  of  torture,  or 
his  limbs  be  broken  upon  the  wheel,  be  considered  as  fully 
granted,  because  touched  with  some  sense  of  womanly  re- 
morse, they  had  dexterously  snatched  the  immortal  jewel 
without  shattering  the  perishable  casket  in  which  it  had 
been  imprisoned. 

Notwithstanding  the  earnest  appeal  made  to  the  king,  to 
do  justice  to  her,  the  little  colony  still  clung  to  the  charter. 

In  October,  at  the  time  prescribed  by  it,  the  General  As- 
sembly convened  as  usual,  and  held  its  regular  session. 

On  Monday,  the  31st  of  October  1687,t  Sir  Edmund  An- 
dross,  attended  by  several  of  the  members  of  his  council  and 
other  gentlemen,  surrounded  by  a  body  guard  of  about  sixty 
soldiers,  entered  Hartford  with  a  view  of  taking  possession 
of  the  instrument  that  all  his  efforts  had  failed  to  procure 
from  the  reluctant  authorities.  The  General  Assembly  was 
in  session  when  he  arrived.  He  was  received  by  the  gover- 
nor and  council,  and  by  the  other  members  of  the  Assembly, 
with  all  the  outward  marks  of  respect,  but  it  was  obvious 
that  no  cordial  feeling  of  congratulation  awaited  him.  An- 
dross    entering  the  legislative  hall   in   the  presence   of  the 

*  The  author  of  "  Will  and  Doom,"  (referring  to  the  letter  containing  this 
petition  of  the  Connecticut  Assembly)  says:  "The  letter  being  received  at 
Whitehall,  the  king  readily  granted  their  request  of  being  annexed  to  the  Bay, 
pursues  his  quo  warranto  no  further,  but  sends  a  commission  to  Sir  Edmund 
Andross,  Kt.,  (then  governor  of  Massachusetts,)  to  take  on  him  the  government 
of  Connecticut."  The  same  writer  subsequently  says  :  "The  charter  govern- 
ment of  Connecticut  was  laid  aside  by  their  own  act,  and  the  king's  government 
was  erected  by  his  excellency  without  fraud  or  force,  but  with  the  free  consent  of 
all  parties  concerned."  He  could  hardly  have  been  acquainted  with  the  prin- 
ciples of  the  English  law,  or  he  would  have  remembered  that  "  duress  per  minas 
voids  all  contracts." 

+  Bulkley's  "  WiU  and  Doom." 


314  HISTORY  OF   CONNECTICUT. 

Assembly,  publicly  demanded  the  charter,  and  declared  the 
government  that  was  then  acting  under  it  to  be  dissolved. 
The  Assembly,  confronted  as  they  were  by  this  royal  emis- 
sary with  an  armed  force  at  his  heels,  neither  complied  with 
his  demand  to  bring  forth  the  charter,  nor  did  they  evince, 
by  resolve  or  any  other  expression  of  their  legislative  will,  a 
determination  to  abandon  any  right  or  immunity  that  they 
had  acquired  and  held  under  it.  Tradition,  never  contro- 
verted by  a  single  respectable  authority,  tells  us  that  Gover- 
nor Treat  remonstrated  against  this  arbitrary  proceeding, 
with  the  manliness  and  strong  sense  that  characterized  his 
whole  life ;  that  he  gave  a  brief  narrative  of  the  early  settle- 
ment of  the  colony,  the  hardships  and  dangers  that  beset  the 
people  for  so  many  years ;  the  Indian  wars  with  their 
long  train  of  evils.  He  pictured,  as  none  but  a  participant  in 
that  sad  drama  could  have  done,  the  savages,  the  fire,  slaugh- 
ter, and  captivity,  that  had  made  Philip's  war  "  so  memorable 
and  so  horrible ;"  and  after  representing  in  vivid  colors  the 
part  that  he  had  himself  played  in  that  and  other  kindred 
struggles,  he  said  it  was  like  giving  up  his  life,  now  to  give 
up  the  patent  and  privileges  so  dearly  bought  and  so  long 
enjoyed.* 

Whether  Sir  Edmund  condescended  to  reply  to  this  touch- 
ing appeal,  we  are  not  informed,  but  in  some  way  the  delib- 
erations were  protracted  until  evening,  perhaps  by  the  choice 
of  Sir  Edmund  himself,  certainly  by  his  acquiescence,  who 
may  have  seen  in  the  lowering  brows  of  the  citizens  as  they 
thronged  the  hall  and  glanced  silently  upon  him,  a  spirit  that 
suggested  to  his  mind  the  prudence  of  obtaining  if  he  could 
a  quiet  submission.  I  have  every  cause  to  think  from  the 
previous  and  subsequent  history  of  the  colony,  that  Governor 
Treat,  who  could  have  had  little  hope  of  making  any  impres- 
sion upon  the  heart  of  Andross  by  this  oration,  prolonged  the 
debate  as  much  as  possible  in  pursuance  of  a  plan  of  opera- 
tions that  had  been  before  agreed  upon,  in  which  others  less 
liable  to  the  charge  of  treason  were  to  be  the  principal 
*  Trumbull,  i.  371. 


[1787.]  THE   CHAETER   DISAPPEARS.  315 

actors.  Be  this  as  it  might,  the  shades  of  evening  gathered 
around  the  legislative  chamber,  and  still  the  charter  had  not 
made  its  appearance.  Lighted  candles  were  brought  in,  and 
the  eager  crowd  pressed  more  and  more  densely  into  the 
room,  to  witness  the  last  pang  of  the  expiring  colony.  We 
may  suppose  that  by  this  time  Sir  Edmund  had  lost  all 
patience,  and,  as  he  saw  no  such  manifestations  of  violence 
and  brutality  as  evince  the  madness  of  an  English  mob,  that 
he  would  be  still  more  peremptory  in  his  demands.  At  last 
the  governor  and  assistants  appear  to  yield.  The  charter  is 
brought  in  and  laid  upon  the  table  in  the  midst  of  the  Assem- 
bly.* It  was  then  that  the  first  lesson  was  given  to  a  crea- 
ture of  the  British  crown,  teaching  him  how  wide  is  the  dif- 
ference between  an  English  populace  and  a  body  of  Ameri- 
can freemen.  In  an  instant,  the  lights  were  extinguished, 
and  the  room  was  wrapped  in  total  darkness.  Still,  not  a 
word  was  spoken,  not  a  threat  was  breathed.  The  silence 
that  pervaded  the  place  was  as  profound  as  the  darkness. 

The  candles  were  quietly  re-lighted,  but,  strange  to  tell,  the 
charter  had  disappeared.  Sir  Edmund,  and  we  may  well 
believe,  the  people's  governor  too,  looked  carefully  in  every 
nook  and  corner  where  it  might  be  thought  to  be  hid,  but 
their  search  was  in  vain.  All  efforts  to  find  the  perpetrator 
of  this  rash  and  sudden  act,  proved  equally  fruitless. 

"  Had  he  melted  in  earth  or  vanished  in  air  ?" 

Thus  robbed  of  the  prize  while  it  seemed  already  in  his 
grasp.  Sir  Edmund  Andross  smothered  his  resentment  as 
well  as  he  could,  and  proceeded  to  assume  the  reins  of  au- 
thority. In  the  following  pompous  words,  he  announced 
that  the  government  of  the  people  was  at  an  end : 

*  The  following  entry  in  the  Colonial  Records  doubtless  has  reference  to  this 
scene  :  "  Sundry  of  the  coiu't  desiring  that  the  patent  or  charter  might  be  brought 
into  the  court,  the  secretary  sent  for  it  and  informed  the  governor  and  court  that 
he  had  the  charter,  and  showed  it  to  the  court,  and  the  governor  bid  him  put  it  in 
the  box  again  and  lay  it  on  the  table,  and  leave  the  key  in  the  box,  which  he  did 
forthwith." 


316  HISTORY   OF   CONNECTICUT. 

"At  a  General  Court  at  Hartford,  October  31st,  1687,  his 
excellency,  Sir  Edmund  Andross,  knight,  and  captain-gen- 
eral and  governor  of  his  majesty's  territories  and  dominions 
in  New  England,  by  order  of  his  majesty  James  the  Second, 
King  of  England,  Scotland,  France,  and  Ireland,  the  31st  of 
October,  1687,  took  into  his  hands  the  government  of  the 
colony  of  Connecticut,  it  being  by  his  majesty  annexed  to 
Massachusetts,  and  other  colonies  under  his  excellency's 
government. 

FINIS.    * 

The  new  governor  now  proceeded  to  appoint  officers 
throughout  the  colony.  His  council  consisted  of  about  fifty 
persons.  Of  these.  Governor  Treat,  John  Fitz  Winthrop, 
Wait  Winthrop,  and  John  Allen,  were  from  Connecticut. 
Sir  Edmund,  like  his  master,  began  his  administration  with 

*  BuUdey,  in  his  "  Will  and  Doom,"  gives  a  somewhat  detailed  account  of  the 
way  in  which  Sir  Edmund  assumed  the  government,  and  of  the  humble  manner  in 
which  Governor  Treat  made  his  resignation  to  his  successor.  It  may  be  inter- 
esting to  the  reader,  and  I  therefore  subjoin  it,  in  that  quaint  author's  own 
language : 

"  Upon  this  notice,  the  governor  summons  the  General  Court  to  meet  at  Hart- 
ford about  the  same  time,  who  accordingly  attended  (readj'-  to  receive  his  excel- 
lency when  he  came,)  and  held  a  court,  and  some  say  also  voted  a  submission  to 
him,  though  of  this  we  are  not  yet  well  assured,  and  possibly  they  made  no  record 
of  it. 

"On  Monday,  October  31,  1687,  Sir  Edmund  Andross,  (with  divers  of  the 
members  of  his  council  and  other  gentlemen  attending  him,  and  with  his  guards,) 
came  to  Hartford,  where  he  was  received  with  all  respect  and  welcome  congratula- 
tion that  Connecticut  was  capable  of.  The  troops  of  horse  of  that  county  conducted 
him  honorably  from  the  ferry  through  Waterfield,  up  to  Hartford,  where  the 
trained  bands  of  divers  towns,  (who  had  waited  there  some  part  of  the  week 
before,  expecting  his  coming  then,  now  again  being  commanded  by  their  leaders,) 
united  to  pay  him  their  respects  at  his  coming. 

"  Being  arrived  at  Hartford,  he  is  greeted  and  caressed  by  the  governor  and 
assistants,  (whose  part  it  was,  being  the  heads  of  the  people,  to  be  most  active  in 
what  was  now  to  be  done,)  and  some  say,  though  I  will  not  confidently  assert  it,  that 
the  governor  and  one  of  the  assistants  did  declare  to  him  the  vote  of  the  General 
Court  for  their  submission  to  him. 

"However,  after  some  treaty  between  his  excellency  and  them,  that  evening, 
he  was  the  next  morning  waited  on  and  conducted  by  the  governor,  deputy 
governor,  assistants  and  deputies,  to  the  court  chamber,  and  by  the  governor  him- 


[1687.]  TYRANNY   OF  ANDEOSS.  317 

many  professions  of  tender  regard  for  the  people.  He  bade 
his  magistrates  dispense  justice  with  an  even  hand,  and  as 
nearly  as  might  be  in  consonance  with  the  established  laws 
and  usages  of  the  colony.  But  these  instructions  were  merely 
the  thin  disguise  of  his  ultimate  designs  to  plunder  and  op- 
press the  people,  or  else,  like  many  a  greater  man,  he  soon 
became  intoxicated  by  too  copious  draughts  from  the  exhil- 
arating cup  of  power,  and  was  led  into  excesses  that  were 
foreign  from  his  original  intentions.  Doubtless  the  example 
of  a  bad  king,  whose  favor  he  was  too  anxious  to  win,  goaded 
him  on  to  acts  of  blindness  and  lawlessness  that  had  before 
that  time  known  no  precedent  in  Connecticut. 

One  of  his  first  acts  of  tyranny,  and  the  one  of  all  others 
most  likely  to  awaken  the  indignation  of  a  people  nurtured 
under  the  auspices  of  the  constitution  of  1639,  was  to  put  an 
end  to  the  liberty  of  the  press.  He  then  proceeded  to  incur 
the  displeasure  of  our  youths  and  maidens  by  requiring  all 
those  parties  who  were  about  to  form  matrimonial  alliances, 
first  to  give  heavy  bonds  with  sureties  to  the  governor.  In 
many  cases,  this  was  impossible,  and  amounted  to  an  actual 
prohibition.  He  also  took  away  from  the  clergy  the  power 
of  joining  persons  in  wedlock,  and  confined  that  privilege 
exclusively  to  magistrates.  This  was  done  to  deprive  the 
clergy  of  the  perquisites  resulting  from  the  discharge  of  this 
delicate  and  sacred  function.* 

He  soon  made  a  still  more  radical  innovation.  The  min- 
isters, as  the  reader  is  now  well  aware,  had  been  the  patri- 

self  directed  to  the  governor's  seat,  and  being  there  seated,  (the  late  governor, 
assistants  and  deputies  being  present,  and  the  chamber  thronged  as  full  of  people 
as  it  was  capable  of,)  his  excellency  declared  that  his  majesty  had,  according  to 
their  desire^  given  him  a  commission  to  come  and  take  on  him  the  government 
of  Connecticut — and  caused  his  commission  to  be  publicly  read. 

"  That  being  done,  his  excellency  showed  that  it  was  his  majesty's  pleasure  to 
make  the  late  governor  and  Capt.  John  Allyn  members  of  his  council,  and  called 
upon  them  to  take  their  oaths,  which  they  did  forthwith — and  all  this  in  that  pub- 
lic and  .great  assembly,  nemine  contradicente,  only  one  man  said  that  they  first 
desired  that  they  might  continue  as  they  were." 

*  Trmnbull,  i.  372. 


3i8  HISTORY  OF   CONNECTICUT. 

archs  of  the  colony,  and  its  pioneers.  They  had  acted  the 
part  of  Moses  and  Aaron,  and  had  led  the  people  through  the 
wilderness,  and  into  the  promised  land.  They  had  smitten 
the  rock  for  the  gushing  forth  of  the  waters ;  they  had  de- 
stroyed the  molten  images  and  superintended  the  cutting 
down  of  the  groves ;  their  prayers  had  aided  in  driving  out 
the  Canaanites,  and  in  obedience  to  their  voice  the  humble 
tabernacle  had  been  set  up  in  the  midst  of  the  tents  of  the 
people  of  God.  Thus  had  the  inhabitants  of  Connecticut  been 
taught  by  their  fathers  to  believe,  and  hence  the  reverence 
that  followed  the  minister  wherever  he  went  was  bred  in 
the  children  that  composed  his  flock.  It  was  a  reverence 
sometimes  carried  to  an  unwarrantable  extent,  amounting  to 
a  sacrifice  of  personal  independence.  But,  unlike  the  rever- 
ence with  which  Sir  Edmund  bent  the  knee  and  bowed  to 
the  arbitrary  will  of  the  king,  it  was  a  sentiment  that  had  in 
it  little  of  the  alloy  of  selfishness  and  none  of  the  obsequi- 
ous cowardice  of  adulation.  It  was  certainly  honest  and 
earnest,  and  pervaded  the  whole  atmosphere  of  society. 
The  people  had  brought  with  them  from  England  the  belief 
that  it  was  necessary  to  the  well-being  of  a  state  that  the 
clergy — and  they  had  one  of  their  own — should  be  supported 
by  law.  They  had,  therefore,  grown  up  under  a  mild  and 
greatly  modified  tithing  system.  With  a  view  of  striking  a 
blow  most  calculated  to  wound  them,  and  with  no  regard, 
certainly,  for  the  promotion  of  that  religious  liberty  now 
so  universal  in  this  country.  Sir  Edmund  repealed  the  laws 
requiring  citizens  to  pay  taxes  for  the  support  of  the  clergy. 
If  they  resisted  his  will,  he  declared  that  he  would  take 
their  meeting-houses  from  them,  and  that  he  would  punish 
any  body  who  should  give  two-pence  to  a  non-conformist 
minister. 

That  this  movement  was  imprudent  and  unstatesmanlike, 
to  say  nothing  of  its  moral  effect  upon  a  people  living  in  the 
seventeenth  century,  and  brought  up  with  the  strictness 
peculiar  to  a  Puritan  education,  I  need  not  say  to  any  reader 
who  knows  any  thing  of  the  philosophy  of  human  govern- 


[1688.]  LAND   TITLES  DECLARED  VOID.  819 

ment.  It  would  of  itself  have  destroyed  all  confidence 
between  the  governor  and  the  governed,  had  any  existed,  and 
would,  in  the  course  of  a  few  years,  have  resulted  in  resist- 
ance and  bloodshed  throughout  New  England. 

Another  measure  adopted  by  him  was,  that  all  estates  of 
deceased  persons  should  be  administered  upon  at  Boston.  The 
expenses  of  a  journey  to  the  capital  city  from  the  border 
towns  of  Connecticut  were  very  burdensome,  and  in  the 
case  of  widows  and  orphans,  often  amounted  to  an  ab- 
solute denial  of  justice.  The  fees  under  his  government 
were  such  as  better  befitted  a  mercantile  city  like  Lon- 
don than  the  agricultural  towns  of  Connecticut.  It  cost 
fifty  shillings  to  prove  a  will,  and  other  charges  were  in 
proportion. 

Taxation  was  another  sore  burden.  Without  any  legisla- 
lative  body  whose  sympathies  were  with  the  people,  and  who 
knew  best  what  weight  of  oppression  they  would  bear,  with- 
out even  consulting  the  majority  of  his  counsel.  Sir  Edmund, 
with  Randolph,  and  a  few  of  his  more  congenial  satellites, 
taxed  the  colonies  at  pleasure. 

Thus  heavily  did  the  time  drag  on  with  the  citizens  of 
Connecticut,  who  had  so  long  been  fondled  in  the  lap  of  free- 
dom, that  they  felt  more  keenly  than  the  other  colonies  the 
yoke  of  a  provincial  tyrant. 

In  1688  the  province  of  New  York  was  brought  under  the 
same  dominion,  and  shared  the  same  degradation.  Indeed 
her  people  for  several  administrations  were  subjected  to  the 
tyranny  of  of  the  worst  rulers. 

All  the  charters  were  now  gone  except  that  of  Connecticut, 
and  the  government  had  ceased  to  be  operated  under  it.  Sir 
Edmund,  therefore,  declared  that  the  tenures  by  which  the 
colonists  held  their  lands  were  valueless.  "  An  Indian  deed," 
he  would  remark  with  a  grim  pleasantry  befitting  the  simile, 
"an  Indian  deed  is  no  better  than  the  scratch  of  a  hears  paiv." 
He,  therefore,  compelled  the  planters  to  take  out  new  patents 
for  their  estates,  and  some  of  them  were  obliged  to  pay  a  fee 
to  the  authorities  of  fifty  pounds  apiece  for  these  new  titles 


320  HISTORY   OF   CONNECTICUT. 

to  lands  that  they  or  their  fathers  had  purchased  of  the  In- 
dians, had  reclaimed  from  the  wilds  of  nature,  had  built  houses 
upon  and  spent  many  times  their  value  in  improving,  not  to 
speak  of  a  possession,  adverse  as  against  the  whole  world,  of 
more  than  half  a  century's  duration,  and  to  say  nothing  of 
solemn  charters,  pledging  the  honor  and  faith  of  kings,  of 
commissioners  that  ratified,  and  of  congratulatory  letters  that 
had  again  and  again  confirmed  those  charters.  Some  of  the 
principal  gentlemen  refused  to  submit  to  this  tyrannical  swin- 
dle, and  were  served  with  "  writs  of  intrusion,"  rightly 
enough  named  if  applied  to  those  who  thus  sought  to  eject 
from  their  patrimony  the  lords  of  the  soil* 

Not  only  were  their  estates  taken  from  the  people,  but  in 
Massachusetts  the  personal  liberty  of  the  citizens  was  tram- 
pled on  with  the  same  recklessness.  All  special  town  meet- 
ings were  prohibited.  The  people  were  imprisoned  at  the 
will  of  the  governor  and  his  minions,  and  the  act  of  habeas 
corpus  was  as  little  regarded  as  in  Turkey  or  Algiers.  In- 
deed, Randolph,  with  the  frankness  of  an  unrestrained  favorite, 
did  not  scruple  to  tell  the  persons  with  whom  he  corresponded 
in  England,  that  Andross  and  his  Council  were  as  "  arbitrary 
as  the  great  Turk."  In  vain  did  petitions  from  his  oppressed 
subjects  in  New  England  assail  the  ear  of  the  king.  Proud, 
bigoted,  prejudiced  against  the  applicants,  and  dividing  his 
time  between  the  cruelties  of  persecution  and  the  seclusion 
of  monastic  life,  he  turned  coldly  away  and  left  them  to  their 
fate. 

It  is  true  that  most  of  these  severe  shocks  of  power  fell 
upon  Massachusetts  and  Plymouth.  Connecticut  had  not 
made  herself  obnoxious  to  the  government,  as  her  sister 
colonies  had  done,  and  besides  she  had  the  benefit  of  Gover- 
nor Treat's  intercessions  in  her  behalf,  who,  though  he  could 
not  avert  the  rapacity  of  Andross  and  Randolph  from  the 
other  colonies,  was  able  to  protect  his  own  from  many  acts 

*  This  was  not  done  uniformly,  and  happened  less  in  Connecticut  than  in 
Massachusetts.  Had  it  been  generally  insisted  on,  the  people  would  have  resisted 
it  by  force,  or  been  brought  to  a  state  of  bankruptcy  by  it. 


[1689.]  CHARTER   GOVERNMENT  RESUMED.  321 

of  oppression  that  would  otherwise  have  driven  her  to  despair. 
He  was  a  member  of  Andross'  Council,  and  through  his  in- 
strumentality, the  other  rulers  with  whom  his  fellow-citizens 
came  more  immediately  in  contact,  were  such  men  as  would 
follow  as  nearly  in  the  old  track  of  administering  justice,  as  they 
could  be  allowed  to  do.  But,  notwithstanding  his  exertions, 
the  affairs  of  the  colony  grew  worse  and  worse ;  and  when 
the  summer  of  the  year  1688  was  brought  to  a  close,  Con- 
necticut was  more  desponding  and  distrustful  than  she  had 
been  at  the  commencement  of  the  administration.  A  dead 
torpor  reigned  throughout  the  colony. 

But  this  darkness  only  heralded  the  dawn  of  a  brighter  day. 
The  abdication  of  James  put  an  end  to  the  license  of  tyranny. 
On  the  5th  of  November,  William,  Prince  of  Orange,  landed 
in  England  and  published  his  plan  of  conducting  the  affairs 
of  his  realm.*  A  copy  of  this  manifesto  soon  arrived  in 
Boston,  and  when  its  contents  were  made  known  to  Andross, 
he  caused  the  messenger  who  had  brought  it  to  be  arrested 
and  committed  to  jail  "for  bringing  a  false  and  traitorous 
libel  into  the  country."  The  people  bade  the  noble  adven- 
turer God-speed  in  his  undertaking,  and  on' the  l8th  of  April, 
1689,  the  popular  indignation,  so  long  repressed,  broke  forth 
in  civil  war.  The  people  of  Boston,  and  the  towns  adjoining, 
arose  in  a  mass,  seized  Andross  and  the  more  odious  members 
of  his  Council,  and  re-instated  the  old  officers  of  the  colony. 

On  the  9th  of  May,  Governor  Treat,  Deputy  Governor 
Bishop,  and  the  old  magistrates  under  the  Charter,  resumed 
the  government  of  Connecticut.  The  Assembly  was  con- 
vened, and  before  the  close  of  the  same  month  the  glad 
tidings  reached  Connecticut  that  William  and  Mary,  of  blessed 
memory,  were  established  upon  the  throne  of  the  British  em- 
pire. With  hearts  as  glad  as  the  young  foliage  upon  the  trees, 
and  the  smiles  of  the  summer  that  was  just  opening,  the 
General  Assembly,  specially  called  for  that  purpose,  hailed 
the  new  king.     With  a  truly  epic  magnificence,  the  glorious 

*  Wade,  261. 
21 


322  HISTORY   OF   CONNECTICUT. 

little  colony  who  alone  had  kept  her  charter,  told  King  Wil- 
liam how  the  "  Lord  who  sitteth  King  upon  the  floods,  had 
separated  his  enemies  from  him  as  he  divided  the  waters 
of  Jordan  before  his  chosen  people."  In  words  flattering  and 
sweet,  she  also  told  him  that  it  was  "  because  the  Lord  loved 
his  people,  that  he  had  exalted  him  to  be  king  over  them,  to 
execute  justice  and  judgment."  Her  General  Assembly  told 
him  further  the  simple  story  of  her  wrongs,  the  oppression  of 
the  provincial  tyrant  who  had  wantonly  usurped  the  govern- 
ment of  a  people  that  had  never  surrendered  their  patent, 
and  how  they  had  now  taken  the  liberty  to  resume  the  reins  of 
government  until  they  could  learn  his  majesty's  good  plea- 
sure. The  officers  who  were  in  power  at  the  date  of  the 
usurpation,  were  re-installed  into  their  respective  places.* 

But,  perhaps  some  one  will  ask  me  if  I  have  forgotten  to 
tell  what  had  become  of  the  charter,  and  Avhere  it  lay  hid 
during  the  unhappy  period  of  Andross'  usurpation  ?  I  have 
not  indeed  forgotten  it ;  neither  have  I  forgotten  the  other 
legend  that  has  come  down  to  us  unchanged  in  its  fair  pro- 
portions, or  in  its  power  over  the  public  mind — a  legend 
more  sacred  than  history,  more  veritable  than  a  record,  for 
it  is  still  represented  by  a  hving  witness,  whose  biography, 
were  it  written,  would  be  read  with  an  interest  that  could 
invest  the  life  of  no  merely  human  personage. 

I  have  already  said  that  before  Governor  Wyllys  came  to 
America,  he  sent  forward  Gibbons,  his  steward,  to  prepare  a 
place  fit  for  his  reception.  We  are  told  that  while  he  was  fell- 
ing the  trees  upon  the  hill  where  Wyllys  afterwards  lived,  he 
was  waited  upon  by  a  deputation  of  Indians  from  the  South 

*  Bulkley  argues  that  the  Charter  Government  was  extinct,  because  the  people 
of  Connecticut  hud  "  voluntarily  omitted  their  annual  election,  the  only  means  to 
continue  their  government,  in  1688,"  and  that,  consequently,  the  resumption  of 
the  government  was  void,  "  there  being  no  Governor  or  Deputy  Governor  to 
summon  a  Court  of  Election,  according  to  the  Charter."  This  would  be  sound 
reasoning  but  for  two  facts,  viz.,  the  failure  to  elect  the  annual  officers  in  1688, 
was  not  "  voluntary,"  and  therefore  did  not  vitiate  the  Charter ;  and  as  the 
Charter  had  never  been  surrendered,  it  was  still  in  full  force. 


THE   CHARTER    OAK.  323 

Meadow,  who  came  up  to  remonstrate  against  the  cutting 
down  of  a  venerable  oak  that  stood  upon  the  side  of  the 
mound  now  consecrated  to  freedom.  With  the  true  elo- 
quence of  nature,  the  brown  sons  of  the  forest  pleaded  in 
behalf  of  the  immemorial  tree.  "It  has  been  the  guide  of 
our  ancestors  for  centuries,"  said  they,  "  as  to  the  time  of 
planting  our  corn.  When  the  leaves  are  of  the  size  of  a 
mouse's  ears,  then  is  the  time  to  put  the  seed  in  the  ground."* 
At  their  solicitation,  the  tree  was  permitted  to  stand,  and 
continued  to  indicate  the  time  when  the  earth  was  ready  to 
receive  the  seed  corn :  a  vast  legendary  tree,  that  must 
have  begun  to  show  signs  of  age  a  hundred  years  before  that 
day,  in  the  cavity  at  its  base  that  was  gradually  enlarging, 
as  one  generation  after  another  of  red  men  passed  from 
beneath  its  shadow. 

As  soon  as  the  lights  had  been  extinguished  in  the  legisla- 
tive chamber,  in  the  presence  of  Andross,  Captain  Wads  worth 
seized  the  precious  charter  and  bore  it  from  the  midst  of  the 
Assembly.  Secretly  he  flew  with  it  to  the  friendly  tree,  and 
deposited  it  in  the  hollow  of  its  trunk.  Thus  the  Charter  of 
Charles  II.,  in  imitation  of  the  exile  of  its  author,  took  refuge 
in  an  oak ;  and  thus  the  king  and  the  patent,  have  trans- 
mitted to  the  trees  that  respectively  shadowed  them,  an 
immortal  name.  But  how  different  the  lesson  taught  by 
them !  The  one  saved  from  his  enemies  the  representative 
of  the  principles  of  despotic  power;  the  other  gave  an 
asylum  to  the  record  that  bore  witness  to  the  rights  of 
humanity  to  resist  that  power. 

The  Charter  Oak  still  lives.  Old,  perchance,  as  the  hep- 
tarchy, this  remarkable  tree,  fresh  in  its  decay,  still  speaks 
of  the  centuries  that  are  gone,  still  points  to  those  that  are  to 
come — the  king  of  trees,  the  tree  of  liberty.     If  it  does  not 

*  The  legend,  as  well  as  the  beautiful  words,  I  have  from  the  pen  of  Historieus, 
a  writer,  who  under  several  names  can  never  hide  himself  from  his  readers. 
The  article  is  to  be  found  in  the  Supplement  to  the  Connecticut  Courant,  undei' 
date  September  13,  1845. 


324  HISTOEY  OF  CONNECTICUT. 

live  five  centuries  more  to  frown  on  those  sons  of  Connecticut 
who  are  ashamed  to  own  their  honorable  mother,  its  memory 
will  be  for  ever  green  in  the  hearts  of  those  who  thank  God 
that  they  were  born  in  The  Charter  Oak  State  ! 


CHAPTER    XV. 


FRONTEJs^AC'S  INVASION.    ATTEMPT  UPON  aPEBEC. 

While  such  important  changes  were  taking  place  in  New 
England,  New  York  also  felt  the  shock  of  revolution.  Jacob 
Leisler  had  taken  the  government  of  that  province  into  his 
hands,  and  held  the  fort  and  city  in  behalf  of  King  William. 
As  the  French  and  Indians  were  assuming  a  very  threaten- 
ing attitude  towards  the  English  on  the  Northern  frontiers, 
Leisler  wrote  to  Connecticut,  begging  her  to  send  troops  to 
aid  in  the  defence  of  his  boi'ders.  On  the  13th  of  June,  1689, 
the  Assembly  appointed  Major  Gold  and  Captain  James 
Fitch  to  go  to  New  York  and  confer  with  Leisler  on  that 
subject,  and  to  decide  in  behalf  of  Connecticut,  how  many 
men  she  should  furnish.* 

In  accordance  with  the  decision  of  this  committee,  the 
governor  and  council  sent  Captain  Bull  with  a  company  to 
Albany,  not  only  to  defend  that  part  of  the  country,  but  also 
to  aid  in  bringing  about  a  treaty  with  the  Five  Nations,  that 
should  secure  their  friendship  for  the  English  colonies.  Con- 
necticut sent  another  party  of  soldiers  to  protect  the  fort  and 
city  of  New  York.f 

While  the  Indians  on  the  northern  frontier  were  busy  in 
their  preparations  for  war,  the  tribes  within  the  limits  of  New 
England  were  not  idle.  They  began  to  assemble  in  numbers, 
and  again  plundered  the  property  of  the  English.     This  new 

*  Colony  Records;  O'Callaghan's  Doc.  Hist.  New  York,  ii.  15,  16,  17,  18; 
Trumbull,  i.  378. 

t  O'Callaghan,  ii.  98.  On  the  lOtli  of  October  the  Assembly  ordered  the 
recall  of  the  troops  sent  to  relieve  the  fort  in  New  York  city,  but  they  were 
directed  to  hold  themselves  in  readiness  to  go  to  the  relief  of  said  fort  in  case  of  an 
attack. 


326  HISTOEY   OF  COI^lSrECTICUT. 

excitement  among  the  eastern  tribes  was  thought  to  be  owing 
to  the  arrogant  behavior  of  Sir  Edmund  Andross  towards 
them.  To  inquire  into  tlie  causes  of  it,  and  if  possible  pre- 
vent bloodshed,  a  special  assembly  was  called,  and  commis- 
sioners were  appointed  to  meet  those  of  the  other  colonies 
and  consult  with  them  as  to  the  causes  of  the  disturbance ; 
and,  if  it  should  appear  that  the  Indians  had  been  wronged, 
to  see  that  justice  was  done  them.  If,  on  the  other  hand,  it 
should  be  found  true  that  the  Indians  were  the  aggressors, 
then  the  commissioners  were  ordered  to  pledge  the  colony 
for  the  furnishing  her  proper  quota  of  men.* 

The  revolution  of  1688,  the  best  landmark  in  British 
history,  as  it  set  the  empire  free  from  the  chains  of  supersti- 
tion and  tyranny,  as  might  have  been  expected,  brought  along 
with  it  the  indignation  of  France,  and  involved  the  two  nations 
in  war.  In  1689,  a  large  number  of  land  forces  was  levied, 
and  a  fine  fleet  was  prepared  for  the  reduction  of  New  York. 
The  undertaking  was  foiled  by  the  incursions  of  the  Mo- 
hawks, who  now  kept  Canada  in  a  state  of  constant  distress 
and  fear. 

To  inspire  the  French  colonists  with  a  new  courage.  Count 
Frontenac  sent  out  several  companies  of  French  and  Indians 
against  the  frontier  settlements  of  New  York  and  New 
England.  As  New  York  was  the  least  able  to  defend  herself, 
and  the  most  exposed  on  account  of  her  thin  population  and 
remote  border  towns,  the  principal  part  of  this  hostile  force 
was  directed  against  her.  A  detachment  of  between  two 
hundred  and  three  hundred  Frenchmen  and  Indians,  under 
the  command  of  D'Aillebout,  De  Mantil  and  Le  Moyn,  was 
therefore  dispatched  from  Montreal  to  lay  waste  the  unpro- 
tected districts  of  New  York.  These  forces  were  provided 
w'lih.  food  and  clothing  suitable  for  a  winter  campaign,  and 
arrived  at  Schenectady,  after  a  painful  march  of  twenty-two 
days,  on  Saturday,  the  8th  of  February,  1G90.  It  was  dead 
winter  and  they  had  suffered  so  much  from  fatigue,  cold,  and 
hunger,  that  they  approached  the  neighborhood  of  this  outpost 

*  Colony  Records. 


[1690.]  MASSACRE   AT   SCHENECTADY.  827 

of  civilization,  with  the  anticipation  that  they  should  be 
obliged  to  surrender  themselves  prisoners  of  war  to  the 
people  whom  they  had  come  to  subdue.  But  the  scouts  who 
had  preceded  them,  and  who  had  spent  some  hours  in  the 
village  without  exciting  any  suspicions,  returned  to  them 
with  the  intelligence  that  the  inhabitants  were  not  prepared 
for  their  reception,  and  that  it  would  be  easy  to  surprise  the 
town.* 

Encouraged  by  the  tidings,  they  resolved  to  make  an 
attack.  The  ferocity  of  the  French  character  was  exhibited 
on  this  occasion,  as  it  was  afterwards  in  the  conflicts  that 
followed.  They  found  the  gates  open  and  without  guard. 
They  returned  to  the  place  about  eleven  o'clock  at  night,  and, 
dividing  their  forces  into  little  parties,  surrounded  every  house 
at  once,  while  the  inmates  were  asleep.  They  were  aroused 
from  their  slumbers  only  to  fall  into  the  embraces  of  a  still 
deeper  repose.  While  yet  their  heads  were  upon  their  pillows, 
the  awful  work  of  destruction  began.  The  very  beds  were 
streaming  with  blood,  and  mutilated  bodies  were  scattered 
upon  the  floors  of  the  houses.  In  a  few  minutes  the  whole 
village  was  in  flames,  and  sixty  of  its  inhabitants  were  slain. 
The  barbarities  practiced  upon  the  dead  are  too  sickening  to 
be  reported.  That  infants  were  torn  from  their  mothers' 
arms,  and  cast  as  fuel  into  the  blaze  that  gleamed  from  the 
half  consumed  dwelling,  is  not  the  less  calculated  to  awaken 
our  sympathy,  when  we  reflect  that  they  must  have  perished 
in  the  snow-storm  that  swept  hurriedly  by,  as  if  to  avoid  the 
scene  of  murder  and  atrocity  that  outbraved  the  fierceness 
of  the  elements.! 

Twenty  captives  were  secured  and  reserved  for  the  grati- 
fication of  savage  vengeance,  when  it  should  again  demand 
its  customary  food.  The  rest  of  the  inhabitants  of  Schenec- 
tady fled  in  their  night-clothes  through  that  awful  storm. 
"Twenty -five  of  the  poor  wretches  who  thus  sought  to  better 

*  Brodhead;  Trumbull;  Smith.         *  Trumbull;  O'CaUaghan,  ii.  71,  156. 


828  HISTORY   OF   CONNECTICUT. 

their  condition,  lost  their  limbs  through  the  sharpness  of  the 
frost."* 

In  the  massacre — I  can  not  call  it  a  battle — Captain  Bull's 
Lieutenant,  one  of  his  sergeants,  and  three  privates  were 
killed,  and  five  were  taken  prisoners. f  The  Connecticut 
troops  had  little  opportunity  for  the  display  of  their  valor  on 
this  occasion,  but  they  did  all  that  brave  men,  under  a  brave 
leader,  could  do  in  their  circumstances. 

As  soon  as  the  news  of  this  midnight  butchery  had  reached 
Albany  the  next  morning,  universal  dismay  and  horror  filled 
the  hearts  of  the  people.  Some  of  them  counseled  that  the 
place  should  be  at  once  destroyed,  and  the  whole  country 
abandoned  to  the  ravages  of  the  enemy.  So  panic-stricken 
were  the  inhabitants,  that  they  lost  all  discretion,  and,  disaf- 
fected as  they  were  at  the  government  of  Leisler,  they  refused 
to  keep  watch  and  ward,  or  maintain  any  regular  military 
discipline.  This  had  been  the  case  especially  at  Schenectady. 
Had  they  followed  the  advice  of  Bull,  and  held  themselves  in 
readiness  for  an  attack,  they  might  have  successfully  repelled 
it.  They  had  been  unable  to  believe  that  the  enemy  could 
march  hundreds  of  miles  in  that  forbidding  season  of  the  year, 
and  steal  upon  them  in  the  night. 

The  destruction  of  Schenectady  was  only  a  part  of  the 
tragedy.  On  the  18th  of  March,  another  party  of  French 
and  Indians  made  a  sudden  attack  upon  Salmon  Falls,  a 
settlement  that  had  been  made  upon  the  bank  of  the  stream 
that  divides  New  Hampshire  from  Maine.  At  daybreak 
they  entered  the  village,  and  in  small  parties,  as  they  had 
done  at  Schenectady,  began  the  massacre  from  several  points 
at  once.  The  people  rallied  and  nobly  defended  themselves, 
until  they  were  crushed  by  the  superior  force  of  their 
mvaders.  Thirty-six  men  were  killed,  and  fifty-four  women 
and  children  were  taken  captive.  Of  course,  the  dwellings 
were  burned,  and  the  whole  place  laid  waste.  J 

The  more  eastern  colonies  were  alarmed  at  this  near  ap- 
proach of  the  enemy,  and  earnestly  begged  that  Connecticut 
*  Trumbull,  i.  380.        t  Trumbull,  i.  380.        t  Trumbull,  i.  380,  381. 


[1690.]  SETTLEMENT  OF  GLASTENBURY.  329 

would  send  troops  to  protect  their  frontier.  Massachusetts, 
especially,  sent  letters,  asking  for  men  to  guard  the  upper 
towns  upon  the  Connecticut  river.*  New  York  and  Albany 
also  asked  the  further  aid  of  our  colony,  not  only  in  the  con- 
tinuance of  Bull  and  his  company  among  them,  but  they 
prayed  that  fresh  soldiers  might  be  sent  to  reinforce  them.f 

It  has  been  one  of  the  attributes  of  Connecticut  always  to 
be  true  to  her  friends  in  the  hour  of  peril,  although  in  doing 
so  she  has  more  than  once  been  obliged  to  overlook  some 
painful  negligences  on  their  part.  Consistent  with  herselij 
she  now  responded  to  the  call  of  her  neighbors,  and  with  one 
voice  her  Assembly  declared  that  the  settlement  of  the 
French  at  Albany  must  be  prevented  at  every  risk.  Two 
companies,  each  of  one  hundred  men,  were  immediately  sent 
to  the  relief  of  Albany,  and  at  the  same  time  other  troops 
were  dispatched  for  the  relief  of  the  Massachusetts  settle- 
ments upon  the  Connecticut  river. 

Nor  did  the  Assembly  fail  to  provide  against  any  encroach- 
ments upon  their  own  territory,  but  compelled  all  the  towns 
to  keep  a  constant  watch  within  their  limits.  None  of  the 
inhabitants  except  assistants,  ministers,  and  the  aged  and 
infirm,  were  exempt  from  this  duty,  and  even  they  were 
obliged  to  employ  substitutes  to  discharge  it  for  them,  pro- 
vided their  pecuniary  condition  would  admit  of  it.  Thus 
every  citizen  in  the  colony  was  taught  to  spend  his  strength 
and  wealth  for  the  general  good  of  the  people.  J 

Meanwhile  the  Assembly  was  not  unmindful  of  the  munici- 
pal wants  of  the  republic.  At  the  same  session  it  was 
ordered  that  all  of  that  part  of  Wethersfield  lying  east  of  the 
Connecticut  river  should  be  invested  with  the  ordinary  cor- 
porate privileges,  and  should  be  known  and  called  by  the 
name  of  Glastenbury.§  Thus  was  the  oldest  town  in  the 
colony,  after  so  many  moral  and  ecclesiastical  divisions  re- 
sulting in  the  birth  of  plantations  near  and  remote,  finally 
allowed  to  follow  in  its  municipal  regulations  the  great  land- 

*  Holmes'  Annals,  i.  431 ;  Hutcliinson         t  Trumbull;  O'Callaghan. 
t  Colonial  Records,  MS,         §  Colonial  Records,  MS. 


830  HISTORY   OP   CONNECTICITT. 

mark  of  the  valley,  and  divide  itself  for  the  sake  of  conven- 
ience into  two  separate  jurisdictions. 

I  have  spoken  elsewhere  of  the  beauty  and  fertility  of  the 
district  comprising  these  two  towns.  Both  of  them  had  their 
birth  in  the  midst  of  convulsions,  threatened  calamities  and 
impending  wars,  and  each  has  done  its  part  towards  the  sup- 
port of  the  fame  and  honor  of  the  State. 

On  the  1st  of  May,  the  commissioners  or  Congress  met  at 
Rhode  Island  to  consult  upon  the  affairs  of  the  colonies,  and 
to  decide  what  measures  were  to  be  adopted  in  order  to  defend 
the  country  against  the  French  and  Indians.  It  was  finally 
resolved  that  to  invade  the  enemy  would  be  the  best  security 
against  a  further  attack  from  them,  and  it  was  accordingly 
ordered  that  eight  hundred  and  fifty  men  should  be  raised  for 
the  reduction  of  Canada.  It  was  deemed  advisable,  too,  in 
this  state  of  aftairs,  to  ask  for  the  help  of  the  mother  country. 
Accordingly,  an  express  was  sent  to  England  to  inform  the 
government  of  the  condition  of  the  colonies,  and  to  implore 
that  a  fleet  might  be  dispatched  to  engage  the  French  by 
sea,  while  the  colonies  invaded  them  by  land.  England, 
however,  was  unable  at  that  time,  in  her  unsettled  state,  to 
render  the  provinces  the  assistance  that  she  would  gladly  have 
done  under  other  circumstances.* 

New  England  and  New  York,  undaunted  by  this  discour- 
aging intelhgence,  resolved  to  prosecute  the  enterprise  alone. 
The  plan  of  operations  was  of  a  bold  and  daring  character. 
It  was  determined  that  about  nine  hundred  Englishmen  and 
more  than  half  that  number  of  Indians  should  march  through 
the  wilderness  and  make  an  attack  upon  Montreal,  while  at 
the  same  time  a  fleet  and  army  of  about  two  thousand  men 
were  to  sail  around  to  the' mouth  of  the  St.  Lawrence,  pro- 
ceed up  the  river  with  all  haste,  and  reduce  Quebec. f 

Under  the  direction  of  Jacob  Milborn,  who  had  married  a 
daughter  of  Leisler,  and  who  was  to  act  as  commissary,  it 
was  expected  that  New  York  would  supply  the  land  army 
with  provisions  and  canoes  to  enable  it  to  cross  the  navigable 

*  Hutchinson,  i.  353;  Holmes,  i.  431.         f  Holmes,  i,  432. 


[1690.]  EXPEDITION  AGAINST  CANADA.  331 

waters  that  were  interposed  between  the  east  country  and 
Montreal.  The  five  nations,  too,  were  counted  upon  as  safe 
alHes  of  the  English,  when  it  was  remembered  how  remorse- 
lessly they  had  fought  against  the  French. 

This  army  was  placed  under  the  command  of  Major-Gen- 
eral  Fitz  John  Winthrop,*  of  Connecticut.  As  soon  as  he 
could  get  his  forces  in  readiness,  Winthrop  set  out  for  Can- 
ada, and  arrived  at  the  head  of  Wood  Creek  early  in  August. 
Instead  of  finding  at  the  appointed  rendezvous  the  warriors 
of  the  five  nations  assembled  in  readiness  to  carry  on  a  war 
with  the  French,  Winthrop  saw  to  his  surprize  only  about 
seventy  Mohawks  and  Oneidas.  He  sent  a  courier  to  the 
other  tribes,  to  know  if  they  designed  to  join  him.  They 
replied,  evasively,  that  they  were  not  yet  ready  to  go. 
This  was  only  a  polite  way  of  informing  the  general  that 
they  did  not  mean  to  go  at  all,  as  the  event  proved.  How- 
ever, he  advanced  about  one  hundred  miles,  until  he  came  to 
the  borders  of  the  lake  where  he  had  expected  to  find  canoes 
in  readiness  to  give  the  army  a  safe  passage.  Here  also  he 
found  that  this  indispensable  requisite  was  not  provided. 
The  few  canoes  that  he  found  there  were  totally  inadequate 
to  perform  such  a  task.f  He  appHed  to  the  Indians  in  this 
emergency,  and  besought  them  to  build  canoes  enough  to 
transport  the  whole  army.  They  replied  that  the  season  for 
peeling  the  bark  from  the  trees  had  already  gone  by,  and  that 
they  could  make  no  more  canoes  until  the  next  spring. 
More  timid,  probably,  than  treacherous,  they  told  General 
Winthrop,  that  in  aiming  a  blow  at  such  a  strong  place  as  Que- 
bec, he  "  looked  too  high,"  and  begged  him  to  depart  from  his 

*  Fitz  John  Winthrop,  son  of  Gov.  John  Winthrop,  of  Connecticut,  be- 
came magistrate  of  Connecticut  in  1689.  In  1694  he  was  sent  to  England  as 
agent  of  the  colony,  and  discharged  the  duties  of  the  appointment  so  satisfac- 
torily that  the  Legislature  made  him  a  present  of  £500.  He  was  distinguished, 
like  his  father,  for  his  knowledge  of  philosophy,  his  skill  in  politics,  and  his 
piety,  and  was  honored  by  being  elected  a  member  of  the  Royal  Society.  In 
1698  he  was  elected  governor  of  Connecticut,  and  held  the  office  till  his  death, 
in  1707. 

t  See  Secretary  Allyn's  letter  to  Lieut.  Gov.  Leisler  in  Doc.  Hist.  New 
York,  vol.  ii.  p.  254 ;    also  Trumbull,  Brodhead,  and  others. 


832  HISTORY   OF   CONiNECTICUT. 

first  design,  and  make  an  attack  upon  Chambly  and  the  bor- 
der towns  upon  the  hither  bank  of  the  St.  Lawrence.  Mil- 
born  had  also  neglected  to  provide  suitable  provisions  for  the 
subsistence  of  the  army,  so  that  the  troops  were  not  only 
kept  from  crossing  the  river,  but  were  now  beginning  to  be 
threatened  with  famine.  A  council  of  war  was  called,  and 
it  was  reluctantly  decided  that  the  army  must  retreat  to 
Albany.* 

In  the  meantime,  the  fleet  under  command  of  Sir  William 
Phipps,  Governor  of  Massachusetts,  having  sailed  from  Nan- 
tasket,  made  haste  to  reach  Quebec.  It  was  made  up  of 
nearly  forty  vessels,  the  largest  carrying  forty-four  guns 
and  two  hundred  men.  Owing,  however,  to  the  many  delays 
that  he  experienced,  the  number  of  his  vessels,  the  adverse 
winds,  and  the  strength  of  the  river  current.  Sir  William  did 
not  reach  Quebec  until  the  5th  of  October.f 

On  the  8th,  he  landed  the  troops  and  advanced  upon  the 
town ;  and  on  the  9th,  the  ships  were  drawn  up  before  it  and 
opened  a  full  fire  upon  it,  but  did  little  injury  to  a  place  so 
formidable  from  its  natural  position.  J 

Frontenac,  only  a  few  days  before,  had  returned  to  Que- 
bec, after  learning  that  the  land  army  which  he  had  started 
in  search  of  had  retreated  to  Albany,  and  now  set  himself 
about  the  defense  of  the  fortress  with  great  ability.  He 
opened  such  a  deadly  fire  upon  the  English  ships  from  his 
batteries  that  they  w^ere  obliged  to  withdraw,  and  on  the  11th 
of  the  month  the  troops  were  compelled  again  to  embark. 
The  terrible  winds  that  beset  the  St.  Lawrence  in  the 
autumn,  and  herald  the  approach  of  the  dead  season  that 
binds  the  noblest  of  all  our  northern  streams  in  fetters  of  ice, 
soon  after  scattered  the  vessels  of  the  English  fleet  and 
warned  Sir  William  to  return  home.     Had  he  arrived  at 

*  Trumbull,  i.  383  ;  O'Callaghan,  ii.  289. 

t  Hutchinson,  i.  354  ;  Holmes ;  Trumbull. 

i  Trumbull,  i.  384.  About  this  time,  Leisler  wrote  to  Governor  Treat,  "  We 
rejoice  to  understand  tho  victorious  success  of  Sir  William  Phipps  at  the  east- 
ward ;" — alluding,  possibly,  to  the  capture  of  Port  Royal  a  short  time  before. 


[1690.]  LEISLER   IMPRISONS   GEJST.   WINTHROP.  333 

Quebec  a  week  earlier  than  he  did,  he  would  have  found  the 
town,  on  account  of  the  absence  of  Count  Frontenac,  com- 
pletely defenceless.  But  Frontenac  having  learned  of  the 
retreat  of  Winthrop,  of  whom  he  was  in  pursuit,  hastened 
back  to  the  fortress  in  time  to  save  it. 

Had  Milborn  been  faithful  in  the  discharge  of  the  duty 
assigned  him  in  the  campaign,  notwithstanding  the  timidity 
of  the  five  nations  and  the  late  sailing  of  the  fleet,  it  is  prob- 
able that  both  branches  of  the  expedition  would  have  proved 
successful,  and  that  the  daring  deeds  that  have  since  associa- 
ted the  brightest  names  of  British  history  with  that  of  Que- 
bec, would  never  have  been  performed. 

That  the  campaign  was  a  failure  was  not  the  fault  of  Con- 
necticut, whose  valor  has  always  been  found  equal  to  con- 
tend with  every  thing  that  dared  to  meet  it,  save  the  insuper- 
able obstacles  of  nature. 

The  abuse  heaped  by  Leisler,  and  by  the  miscreant  Mil- 
born  himself,  upon  Winthrop  and  the  gentlemen  of  Albany 
who  were  of  the  council  of  war,  was  even  more  disgraceful 
than  the  negligence  or  cowardice  of  those  maligners  that 
had  been  the  cause  of  the  retreat  of  which  they  complained. 
Several  of  the  principal  gentlemen  of  Albany,  among  whom 
was  Robert  Livingston,  Esq.,  were  obliged  to  fly  from  New 
York  and  take  refuge  in  Hartford,  where  they  were  protected 
from  violence.* 

But  Leisler's  arrogance  did  not  stop  with  persecuting  the 
citizens  of  New  York.  After  the  main  army  had  crossed 
the  Hudson  river,  and  while  General  Winthrop  himself  was 
on  the  west  bank,  and  of  course  unprotected,  Leisler  brutally 
seized  his  person  and  attempted  to  go  through  the  formalities 
of  court-martialing  the  commander-in-chief  of  New  Eng- 
land, who  was  in  no  way  responsible  to  him,  and  who  had 
been  sent  out  more  to  protect  the  colony  that  he  pretended 
to  govern,  than  for  any  other  cause.  For  several  days  Win- 
throp lay  under  arrest,  and  might  have  been  murdered  in 
cold  blood  had  it  not  been  for  the  timely  interference  of  a 

*  See  O'CaUaghan;  Trumbull,  i.  384. 


334  HISTORY  OF   CONNECTICUT. 

party  of  Mohawks,  who,  while  the  mockery  of  the  trial  was 
going  on,  crossed  the  river,  broke  through  the  guards  that 
surrounded  the  prisoner,  and  bore  him  off  in  triumph.* 

When  we  consider  the  character  of  Winthrop  and  Living- 
ston, the  defenseless  condition  of  New  York,  and  the  efforts 
that  Connecticut  had  made  during  the  preceding  winter  to 
save  the  inhabitants  of  Schenectady  and  Albany  from  a 
doom  that  their  recklessness  seemed  rather  to  covet  than  to 
shun,  we  are  at  a  loss  whether  to  admire  more  the  ruffianly 
impudence  or  the  heartless  ingratitude  of  this  transaction. 

While  Winthrop  was  in  close  confinement,  the  authorities 
of  Connecticut  addressed  a  letter  to  Leisler,  reminding  him, 
though  in  a  courteous  way,  of  the  same  obligations  that  he 
must  have  forgotten.  "A  prison,"  they  say,  "is  not  a 
catholicon  for  all  state  maladies,  though  so  much  used  by 
you."  In  another  place  they  add,  "  If  your  adherence  to 
Mr.  Milborn  (whose  spirit  we  have  sufficient  testimony  of,) 
and  other  emulators  of  the  major's  honor,  be  greater  than  to 
ourselves  and  the  gentlemen  of  the  bay,  you  may  boast  of 
the  exchange  by  what  profit  you  find."t 

The  severity  of  this  language  appears,  to  us  who  know  the 
history  of  New  York  for  the  century  next  succeeding  the 
date  of  the  letter,  to  be  rather  a  prophetic  warning  than  a 
threat.  But  I  ought  not  to  speak  more  at  length  upon  this 
topic,  lest  it  should  be  thought  that  I  am  unable  to  make  a 
distinction  between  the  profligacy  of  an  administration  and 
the  character  of  the  people  who  are  oppressed  by  it.  New 
York  was  not  to  blame  for  the  madness  of  a  tyrant. 

In  order  that  no  imputation  might  rest  upon  the  character 
of  Major-General  Winthrop,  the  General  Assembly,  in  Octo- 
ber following,  went  into  a  full  investigation  of  his  conduct. 
Evidence  was  heard  not  only  from  Albany,  but  from  the 
New  England  officers  who  had  been  of  the  council  of  war; 
even  the  Indians  who  had  participated  in  the  affair,  and  who 
could  testify  as  to  the  deficiency  of  canoes  and  provisions, 

*  Trumbull,  i.  384 ;  see  also  Doc.  Hist.  New  York,  ii.  288,  289. 
i-  O'Callaghan,  ii.  289. 


[1692.]  WINDHAM  INCOEPOEATED.  335 

were  examined.  Unanimously  the  Assembly  resolved, 
"  That  the  general's  conduct  in  the  expedition  had  been 
with  good  fidelity  to  his  majesty's  interest,  and  that  his  con- 
finement at  Albany  on  the  account  thereof,  demanded  a 
timely  vindication."  * 

A  committee  of  two  magistratesf  was  also  appointed  in 
the  name  of  the  Assembly,  to  thank  General  Winthrop  for 
his  services,  and  to  assure  him  of  their  readiness  on  all  future 
occasions  to  avail  themselves  of  his  fidelity,  valor,  and 
prudence.J 

In  May  1692,  Windham  was  incorporated.  The  tract  of 
land  embraced  in  it  was  a  very  fine  one,  and  had  been  de- 
vised by  Joshua,  son  of  Uncas  and  sachem  of  the  Mohegans, 
to  John  Mason,  James  Fitch,  and  twelve  others,  many  years 
before. §  The  territory  thus  given,  comprised  also  the  towns 
of  Mansfield  and  Canterbury.  Settlements  were  begun  both 
at  Windham  and  Mansfield  in  1686.  Windham  has  long 
been  a  town  of  historical  importance,  and  was  made  a  county 
seat  in  1726. 

The  Mohawks  gave  Count  Frontenac  as  much  trouble  as 
the  English,  and  proved  very  destructive  enemies.  After  he 
was  relieved  from  the  embarrassments  attending  the  English 
expedition  against  Canada,  he  determined  to  embrace  the 
earliest  opportunity  to  subdue  these  Indians.  With  this 
view  he  collected  an  army  of  about  seven  hundred  French 
and  Indians,  and  sent  it  forth,  well  provided  for  the  hardships 

*  Colonial  Records,  MS. 

t  Captain  James  Fitch  and  Captain  Daniel  Wetherell. 

X  Leisler  wrote  to  Gov.  Bradstreet  (Sept.  15,  1690,)  as  follows :  "  I  have  used 
all  arguments  and  means  possible  to  reinforce  for  Canada;  but  by  Major  Win- 
throp's  treachery  and  cowardice,  with  the  rest  of  his  tools,  hath  rendered  this 
work  altogether  impracticable."  "  Mr.  Livingston,  that  betrayer  of  the  province, 
and  arch-confederate  with  yourselves,  being  willing  to  have  exposed  us  to  the 
remaining  inhabitants ;  however,  God  be  thanked,  we  had  those  that  made  early 
provision  against  these  devices." 

Hutchinson,  the  historian  of  Massachusetts,  justly  remarks :  "  Winthrop's 
character  seems  to  have  been  made  a  sacrifice  to  Leisler's  vanity  and  madness.'* 

§  Colonial  Records,  MS. 


336  HISTORY  OF   CONNECTICUT. 

of  a  winter  campaign  similar  to  the  one  that  had  resulted  so 
disastrously  at  Schenectady. 

In  the  middle  of  January  1693,  this  army  set  out  from 
Montreal  for  the  Mohawk  country.  This  warlike  tribe 
occupied  a  number  of  fortified  places  called  by  our  early 
records  "  castles."  After  suffering  the  extremest  hardships, 
the  invading  army  reached  the  first  of  these  strongholds  on 
the  6th  of  February.  Here  they  took  four  or  five  men,  and 
passed  on  to  the  second,  where  they  met  with  the  like  suc- 
cess. Most  of  the  Indians  who  ordinarily  lived  in  it  were 
absent.  At  the  third,  they  were  more  fortunate.  Here 
about  forty  warriors  were  assembled  for  a  war-dance,  pre- 
paratory to  their  departure  upon  an  expedition  against  their 
enemies.  They  made  a  stout  resistance,  but  were  over- 
powered by  numbers,  after  having  killed  thirty  of  the  assail- 
ants. In  this  expedition  the  French  took  about  three  hun- 
dred of  the  five  nations.  Most  of  them  were  women  and 
children. 

Colonel  Schuyler,  of  Albany,  at  the  head  of  about  two 
hundred  men,  pursued  the  French  army  with  such  energy 
that  they  were  glad  to  retreat.  His  forces  were  more  than 
doubled  within  a  few  days  after  he  took  the  field,  by  the 
allied  Indians  who  flocked  to  his  standard.  About  the 
middle  of  February,  he  came  to  the  place  where  the  French 
army  was  encamped.  Three  times  they  commenced  a 
deadly  attack  upon  him  and  were  driven  back. 

Schuyler  was  nearly  destitute  of  provisions,  and  while  he 
was  waiting  to  be  supplied  with  them,  and  with  reinforce- 
ments from  Albany,  the  enemy,  taking  advantage  of  a  severe 
snow-storm,  deserted  their  camp  on  the  night  of  the  18th, 
and  set  off  on  their  return  for  Canada.  The  next  day.  Cap- 
tain Simms,  with  eighty  men  and  a  good  supply  of  provisions, 
joined  Schuyler,  who  immediately  resumed  the  pursuit.  He 
pressed  so  close  upon  the  French  that  he  would  have  over- 
taken them  had  they  not  crossed  the  north  branch  of  Hud- 
son's river  upon  a  floating  cake  of  ice,  and  thus  effected  their 


[1693.]  GOV.   FLETCHER   ARRIVES   IN"  NEW   YORK.  337 

escape.  As  it  was,  he  took  from  them  most  of  the  captives 
that  had  fallen  into  their  hands.* 

Letters  soon  arrived  at  Hartford,  informing  Governor 
Treat  of  the  state  of  the  western  forces,  and  urgently  calling 
for  two  hundred  soldiers  to  repair  to  Albany  for  the  defense 
of  the  king's  dominions.  On  the  21st  of  February,  a  special 
Assembly  was  called,  and  one  hundred  and  fifty  men,  under 
command  of  Captain  John  Miles,  were  immediately  placed 
at  the  governor's  disposal,  to  send  wherever  he  should  deem 
it  most  for  his  majesty's  interest  to  order  them.  The  next 
day  fifty  of  them  were  on  the  march  for  Albany.f 

The  Assembly  had  scarcely  adjourned,  when  new  dis- 
patches arrived  by  express  from  Sir  William  Phipps,  gover- 
nor of  Massachusetts,  asking  for  one  hundred  Englishmen 
and  fifty  Indians,  to  aid  in  protecting  the  eastern  settlements 
both  in  Maine  and  Massachusetts. 

On  the  6th  of  March,  another  special  Assembly  was  called, 
and  the  necessities  of  Massachusetts  were  responded  to  by 
Connecticut,  by  raising  a  company  of  sixty  Englishmen  and 
forty  Indians,  who  were  placed  under  the  command  of  Cap- 
tain William  Whiting.  The  activity  of  our  little  colony, 
the  alacrity  with  which  her  troops  were  sent  to  relieve  the 
northern,  eastern,  and  western  borders  of  the  neighboring 
colonies  is  in  perfect  keeping  with  her  previous  and  subse- 
quent history. 

The  halcyon  days  of  our  republic  were  destined  again  to 
be  interrupted  by  the  old  question  of  jurisdiction.  The 
anomalous  authority  of  Leisler  was  now  over  in  New  York, J 
but  his  successor  was  no  less  likely  to  prove  dangerous  to 
the  liberties  of  our  people.  On  the  29th  of  August  1692, 
Colonel  Benjamin  Fletcher,  the  new  governor,  arrived  from 
England  with  a  commission  that  vested  him  with  full  powers 

*  Trumbull.         t  Colony  Records,  MS. 

X  Leisler  and  Milborn  were  executed  in  New  York  city  for  treason,  May  16, 
1691;  Leisler  having  previously  been  succeeded  in  the  office  of  chief  magistrate 
of  New  York  by  Col.  Henry  Sloughter,  who  died  in  July  of  the  same  year.  Col. 
Fletcher  succeeded  Sloughter. 

22 


338  nisTouY  of  Connecticut. 

to  command  the  whole  mihtia  of  Connecticut  and  the  neigh- 
boring provinces.*  This  commission  of  course  took  for 
granted  the  fact  that  the  charter  had  been  surrendered  or 
forfeited,  a  proposition  not  hkely  to  be  received  with  much 
favor  by  Governor  Treat  and  the  otlier  autlioritics,  nor  by  tiie 
excited  mihtia  wlio  liad  shared  so  many  battles,  and  who  had 
withstood  the  landing  of  Sir  Edmund  Andross  at  Saybrook ; 
and  who  already  looked  upon  the  Charter  Oak  witii  as  much 
reverence  as  the  ancient  nations  bordering  upon  the  Medi- 
terranean entertained  for  the  shrine  of  their  favorite  oracle. 
As  the  charter  had  never  been  given  up,  and  as  the  command 
of  the  militia  was  given  by  it  to  the  colony,  the  General  As- 
sembly of  course  could  do  nothing  less  than  resist  this  arbi- 
trary demand.  However,  out  of  respect  to  the  people,  the 
question  was  referred  to  the  freemen,  whether  they  would 
petition  the  king  to  preserve  to  them  the  control  of  the 
militia  and  their  other  chartered  rights. 

At  a  special  Assembly  held  on  the  1st  of  September  1G93, 
it  was  ordered  that  a  petition  should  be  presented  to  the 
throne  in  relation  to  this  vital  matter.  This  petition  was  to 
be  ]iresentcd  by  Maj.  Gen.  Fitz  John  Winthrop,  who  was 
made  the  agent  of  the  colony  for  that  purpose,  and  wiio  Avas 
desired  to  repair  as  soon  as  possible  to  England,  and  use  all 
his  endeavors  to  keeji  the  jurisdiction  of  the  colonial  govern- 
ment entire.t 

lie  was  instructed  to  tell  the  king  what  hardshij^s  the 
peojile  had  encountered  in  the  infancy  of  the  colony,  without 
the  help  of  the  mother  country,  and  what  dangers  still  sur- 
rounded them  ;  that  if  the  military  power  shoukl  be  then 
taken  from  them,  })lace(l  under  the  command  of  strangers, 
and  removeil  out  of  the  limits  of  the  colony  to  New  York  or 
Boston,  the  citizens  of  Conneetieut  \vould  be  left  utterly 
defenseless,  and  their  lamilies  and  i)roj)erty  would  be  at 
the  mercy  of  their  enemies ;  that  an  absent  stranger  would 

•  Tnunbuli,  i.  390. 

+  Coloniiil  Tvoooi'ds,  MS.     Mr.  Saltoiistall  wiv^  appointoil  to  acooinpauy  Gov. 
Wintlirop  to  Kiigliiiul. 


[1693.]  INSTRUCTIOlSrS  TO   GEN.   WINTHROP.  839 

be  but  a  poor  judge  of  the  wants  of  people  who  lived  so 
remote  from  him,  whose  sympathies  were  not  with  them,  and 
who  could  be  expected  to  know  nothing  of  the  internal 
wants  of  the  country,  whose  institutions  he  was  ignorant  of, 
and  whose  society  was  of  a  different  texture,  and  had  different 
wants  from  that  in  which  he  had  been  reared  ;  that  in  case 
of  insurrection  the  military  power  would  thus  be  unavailable 
to  restore  the  inhabitants  to  their  wonted  tranquillity ;  that 
the  settlements  in  the  colony,  unlike  the  villages  and  hamlets 
in  England,  were  thinly  inhabited  and  remote  from  each 
other,  rendering  it  necessary  to  put  upon  the  military  list  all 
males  who  had  arrived  at  the  age  of  sixteen  years,  and  thus, 
were  the  militia  withdrawn  to  some  other  colony,  Connecti- 
cut would  be  left  in  the  keeping  of  magistrates,  professional 
gentlemen,  infirm  old  men  and  helpless  women,  who  might 
hope  in  vain  to  be  able  to  guard  a  line  of  sea-coast  and  frontier 
wilderness  formidable  enough  to  the  people  in  their  best  estate. 
Winthrop  was  further  instructed  to  say  to  the  king  that  the 
entire  population  of  the  colony  was  satisfied  with  the  charter 
government,  and  prayed  that  it  might  be  perpetuated. 

They  bade  him  be  sure  to  inform  the  king  how  unanimous 
the  people  were  in  their  rejoicings  over  that  happy  event, 
the  revolution  of  1688,  that  had  placed  at  the  head  of  a  new 
dynasty  so  gracious  and  acceptable  a  sovereign,  and  that  if 
their  prayer  was  granted,  the  militia  should  be,  as  it  had 
before  been,  held  at  the  service  of  the  crown,  to  defend  its 
honor,  and  the  integrity  of  the  king's  empire  as  well  in  Mas- 
sachusetts and  New  York  as  in  Connecticut.  They  further 
instructed  him  to  say,  that  in  defense  of  his  majesty's  inter- 
ests in  the  recent  troubles  in  New  York  they  had  expended 
more  than  three  thousand  pounds  and  had  freely  shed  their 
blood.* 

It  was  also  left  discretionary  with  the  agent  whether  he 
should  venture  to  depart  from  the  tone  of  supplication  and 
assume  an  attitude  of  defense,  setting  up  the  charter  and  the 
rights  vested  by  it  in  the  authorities  of  the  colony. 

*  Colonial  Records,  MS. ;    also  Trumbull,  i.  390,  392. 


840  HISTORY  OF  CONNECTICUT. 

At  the  same  time,  an  agent  was  sent  to  New  York  with  a 
view  of  conciliating  Governor  Fletcher  so  far  as  could  be 
done  without  compromising  the  claims  set  up  under  the 
charter.  Wilham  Pitkin,  Esq.,  was  the  agent  designated  for 
this  mission.  He  was  charged  to  pay  his  respects  to  Gover- 
nor Fletcher,  and  treat  with  him,  if  possible,  in  relation  to  the 
militia.  Owing  to  the  obstinacy  of  Fletcher,  the  embassy 
proved  to  be  a  failure. 

Finding  all  his  efforts  to  get  control  over  the  militia  un- 
availingj  Governor  Fletcher  resolved  to  try  coercive  meas- 
ures. On  the  26th  of  October,  therefore,  he  came  to  Hart- 
ford while  the  Assembly  were  in  session,  and  in  the  king's 
name  demanded  at  their  hands  the  surrender  of  the  militia, 
as  they  would  answer  to  his  majesty  for  their  conduct.  He 
insisted  on  receiving  from  them  a  direct  answer  whether 
they  would  or  would  not  comply  with  his  orders.  He  sub- 
scribed himself  as  "  Lieutenant  to  his  majesty,  and  command- 
er-in-chief of  the  militia,  and  of  all  the  forces  by  sea  or  land, 
and  of  all  the  forts  and  places  of  strength  in  the  colony  of 
Connecticut."* 

With  the  same  pompous  authority  he  commanded  that 
the  militia  should  be  summoned  under  arms  in  order  that  he 
might  beat  up  for  volunteers.  As  if  they  designed  to  smooth 
his  path  to  authority,  the  officers  complied  with  the  order, 
and  called  the  train-bands  together.  Up  to  this  point  every- 
thing was  encouraging.  But  here  to  his  surprise  the  Assem- 
bly took  a  resolute  stand.  A  very  favorable  time  it  was  for 
the  legislature  to  assume  a  bolder  front,  now  that  the  guns  of 
the  train-bands  were  seen  to  glisten  in  front  of  the  Assembly 
House.  Governor  Fletcher  had  invoked  some  troublesome 
spirits  that  he  might  not  be  able  to  quell  now  that  they  were 
before  him.  In  vain  did  he  argue  and  remonstrate  with  the 
Assembly,  and  in  vain  did  he  expatiate  upon  the  ample 
powers  given  him  by  his  commission.  The  republican 
authorities  either  would  not  or  could  not  comprehend  how 
those  powers  were  consistent  with  the  charter. 

*  Fletcher's  Letter  on  file. 


[1693.]   CAPTAIN"  WADSWORTH  AND   THE   TRAIN-BANDS.      341 

In  Fletcher's  name,  Colonel  Bayard  sent  a  letter  into  the 
Assembly,  wherein  he  had  carefully  set  down  the  object  of 
his  visit,  and  how  remote  it  was  from  his  intentions  to  inter- 
fere in  any  way  with  the  civil  rights  of  the  colony.  His 
excellency,  said  Bayard,  will  leave  you  as  he  found  you,  in 
the  full  enjoyment  of  your  own.  In  Fletcher's  name  he  also 
tendered  to  Governor  Treat  a  commission  authorizing  him 
to  command  the  militia.  He  insisted  that  he  was  contending 
for  the  recognition  of  the  mere  abstract  right  on  the  part  of 
the  king  to  control  the  military  force,  but  that  practically  the 
colony  would  have  the  same  authority  as  before.  This 
"  inherent,  essential  right"  existing  in  his  majesty,  he  said  his 
excellency  had  come  to  see  after,  and  that  he  would  never 
set  his  foot  out  of  Connecticut  until  it  was  acknowledged. 
He  further  said  that  he  would  issue  his  proclamation  to  the 
people,  and  then  he  should  be  able  to  distinguish  the  disloyal 
from  those  citizens  who  were  peaceably  disposed.* 

If  he  had  dropped  the  letter  into  the  Connecticut  river,  it 
would  have  produced  as  much  effect  upon  the  flow  of  the 
current  as  it  did  upon  the  Assembly.  They  reiterated  that 
they  could  not  give  up  the  command  of  the  militia,  and  Gov- 
ernor Treat  with  his  usual  firmness,  said  it  was  impossible  for 
him  to  receive  a  commission  from  ihe  hands  of  Governor 
Fletcher.  This  peremptory  demand  on  the  one  hand  and 
refusal  on  the  other,  brought  matters  at  once  to  an  open 
issue. 

As  the  train-bands  were  all  ranged  in  due  order,  and  as 
the  senior  officer,  Captain  Wadsworth,  was  walking  up  and 
down  in  front  of  the  companies.  Governor  Fletcher  advanced 
within  hearing  distance,  and  ordered  his  commission  and 
instructions  to  be  read.  No  sooner  had  Bayard  begun  to 
read,  than  Captain  Wadsworth  commanded  that  the  drums 
should  be  beaten.  This  was  done  with  such  effect  that  the 
voice  of  the  herald  was  entirely  drowned  in  the  din.  "  Si- 
lence !"  said  Gov.  Fletcher,  in  a  tone  of  offended  authority. 
When  the  noise  had  subsided  so  that  he  could  be  heard,  Bay- 

*  Col.  Bayard's  Letter  on  file. 


842  HISTORY  OF  CONNECTICUT. 

ard  again  began  to  read  the  commission.  "Drum,  I  say, 
drwn  /"  said  Captain  Wadsworth,  and  in  an  instant  the 
voice  was  again  lost  in  the  thunders  of  martial  music.  "Si- 
lence, silence!"  shouted  the  provincial  governor.  "Drum, 
drum,  I  say !"  repeated  Wadsworth ;  and  then,  turning  to 
Fletcher  and  fixing  his  sharp  resolute  eyes  upon  him,  he  said 
— "  If  I  am  interrupted  again,  I  will  make  the  sun  shine 
through  you  in  a  moment  /"  The  tone  in  which  these  words 
were  spoken  was  unmistakable.  Governor  Fletcher  knew 
that  death  would  be  the  consequence,  if  he  should  attempt  a 
third  time  to  enforce  his  orders.  He  prudently  forebore,  and 
as  he  saw  the  people  constantly  pouring  into  Hartford  and 
thronging  about  him  and  his  suite  with  lowering  brows  and 
angry  gestures,  he  retired  from  the  field,  and  adopting  for 
himself  the  silence  that  he  had  in  vain  sought  to  restore  to 
the  ranks  of  the  Connecticut  militia,  departed  for  his  own 
jurisdiction.* 

*  This  lively  episode  in  our  history,  like  the  hiding  of  the  charter,  rests  upon 
tradition;  but  it  has  been  transmitted  through  such  hands  and  with  so  little  vari- 
ation, that  its  accuracy  was  never  for  a  moment  questioned.  Such  a  tra'dition  as 
this,  is  as  worthy  of  trust  as  a  record,  and  takes  a  much  stronger  hold  on  the  im- 
agination. The  story  is  in  perfect  keeping  with  the  traits  of  our  people.  As 
usual,  the  authorities  were  only  passive,  while  the  active  resistance  came  from  a 
less  responsible  soui-ce.     (See  Trumbull,  i.  393  ;  also  Hohnes,  i.  449.) 


CHAPTER  XVI. 

CONSPmACT  OF  DUDLEY  AND  CORNBURT. 

Connecticut,  thus  set  free  from  the  presence  of  another 
provincial  tyrant,  kept  on  in  her  old  way  under  the  charter. 
She  soon  had  an  opportunity  of  showing  her  loyalty  to  King 
William,  and  lost  no  time  in  making  amends  for  what  the 
senior  captain  of  the  train-bands  had  done  to  Governor 
Fletcher.  How  then  could  it  be  presumed  for  a  moment 
that  Governor  Treat  and  the  Assembly  had  approved  of  such 
lawless  conduct? 

On  the  7th  of  February  1694,  a  special  Assembly  was  con- 
vened on  account  of  a  requisition  that  had  been  received 
rom  the  king  calling  upon  the  colony  to  raise  money  for  the 
defense  of  Albany.  With  much  apparent  alacrity,  the  legis- 
lature voted  to  comply  with  the  demand,  and  accordingly  a 
ax  of  one  penny  on  the  pound  was  laid  to  raise  the  sum  of 
five  hundred  pounds.*  The  money  was  paid  over  into  the 
hands  of  Colonel  Fletcher.  The  magistrates  were  also  di- 
rected to  issue  their  warrants  for  the  impressment  of  fifty 
bushels  of  wheat  in  each  county,  which  was  forthwith  to  be 
made  into  biscuit,  and  kept  for  the  use  of  the  soldiers  in  case 
of  any  sudden  emergency. 

In  due  time  Major-General  Winthrop,  the  agent  of  the 
colony,  arrived  in  England  and  hastened  to  present  her 
claims  to  his  majesty.  He  drew  up  in  writing  a  statement  of 
the  whole  subject  matter  of  his  mission,  embracing  the  in- 
structions under  which  he  acted,  together  with  such  reasons 
and  arguments  as  occurred  to  his  own  mind.  After  a  full 
hearing,  the  king's  attorney  and  solicitor-general  gave  an 
opinion  favorable  to  the  claims  set  up  by  the  agent,  and  on 
*  Colonial  Records,  MS. 


344  HISTORY   OF   CONNECTICUT. 

the  19th  of  April  1694,  his  majesty  in  council  graciously  de- 
cided in  accordance  with  the  report  thus  made.  It  was 
determined  that  Connecticut  should  place  at  the  disposal  of 
Governor  Fletcher,  during  the  war,  one  hundred  and  twenty 
men,  and  that  the  rest  of  the  militia  of  the  colony  should  be, 
as  they  ever  had  been,  under  the  control  of  the  popular 
governor.*  This  arrangement  was  perfectly  satisfactory 
to  Connecticut,  as  it  virtually  recognized  the  existence  and 
authority  of  the  charter. 

The  aid  rendered  by  Connecticut  in  the  war  was  constant 
and  effective.  The  whole  amount  of  taxes  during  the  con- 
tinuance of  hostilities,  amounted  to  the  enormous  burden  of 
about  twenty  pence  on  the  pound ;  so  that  at  the  close  of  the 
year  1695,  the  colony  had  drawn  from  the  pockets  of  the 
people  and  paid  out  seven  thousand  pounds  in  the  defense  of 
New  York  and  Massachusetts.  When  we  consider  that  the 
ratable  polls  in  the  whole  jurisdiction  numbered  less  than  two 
thousand  four  hundred,  and  that  the  grand  list  amounted  to 
only  £137,646,  we  can  not  but  admire  the  self-sacrificing 
spirit  of  the  citizens  ;  and  especially  when  we  remember  that 
they  submitted  to  this  heavy  drain  from  their  resources 
from  the  most  magnanimous  and  unselfish  motives  that 
ever  actuated  a  people.  To  this  £7,000  is  to  be  added 
£3,000  for  the  untoward  expedition  against  Canada  under 
Winthrop. 

For  two  years  more,  until  the  close  of  the  war  in  Septem- 
ber 1697,  she  submitted  still  further  to  the  arbitrary  demands 
of  Fletcher,  who  took  the  ignominious  revenge  ofharrassing 
the  governor  or  the  assembly  in  every  possible  way,  to  com- 
pensate for  the  wound  that  had  been  inflicted  on  his  dignity 
at  Hartford.  Again  and  again  he  sent  out  his  expresses 
to  the  governor,  representing  the  advance  of  the  enemy 
towards  some  exposed  place,  giving  false  estimates  of  their 
numbers  and  movements,  and  calling  for  troops  or  other 
assistance  that  involved  the  necessity  of  convening  the 
Assembly.  After  the  forces  thus  demanded  had  set  out 
""  ""*  Trumtull,  i.  394, 395. 


[1697.]  THE   EARL   OF  BELLAMONT.  345 

upon  their  march,  another  messenger  would  arrive  in  hot 
haste,  informing  Governor  Treat  that  the  exigency  had 
passed  by,  and  that  he  might  recall  his  forces.  In  this 
way  the  governor  and  council  were  kept  almost  constant- 
ly on  duty,  and  the  deputies  did  little  else  than  ride  to 
and  from  the  seat  of  government  to  attend  these  special 
assemblies.  However,  the  inhabitants  were  only  too  happy 
that  in  this  way  they  could  neutralize  the  malice  of  a  vin- 
dictive and  cowardly  spirit,  and  divert  its  attention  from 
the  charter.        • 

Had  the  war  lasted  much  longer,  the  people  must  have 
become  bankrupt,  as  they  had  paid  at  the  date  of  the 
peace  of  Ryswick*  above  alluded  to,  the  almost  ruinous 
sum  of  £12,000.  But  as  in  the  case  of  Andross  and  Leis- 
ler,  tyranny  was  destined  at  last  to  have  an  end. 

On  the  18th  of  June  1697,  Richard,  earl  of  Bellamont, 
received  a  commission  to  be  governor  of  New  York  and 
Massachusetts.  In  order  to  maintain  a  good  footing  with 
the  king,  the  Assembly  at  its  October  session  appointed 
General  Winthi-op,  Major  Sellick  and  the  Rev.  Gurdon 
Saltonstall,  a  committee  to  wait  upon  the  new  functionary 
as  soon  as  he  should  arrive  in  New  York,  and  pay  their 
respects  to  him  in  the  name  of  the  colony. f  It  was  not 
until  the  spring  of  the  next  year  that  his  excellency  came 
over  to  America.  He  was  very  much  gratified  at  receiving 
the  congratulations  of  the  committee,  who  were  all  gentle- 
men of  good  address  and  highly  cultivated  minds.  His 
lordship  pronounced    Mr.  Saltonstall    to    be    the  most  ele- 

*  The  treaty  of  peace  was  signed  at  Ryswick,  in  September  1697,  between 
France,  England,  Spain,  and  Holland,  and  was  proclaimed  at  Boston  on  the  10th 
of  December  following.  Wade,  288 ;  Holmes,  i.  464.  "  And  the  English  colo- 
nies had  repose  from  war."     Hutchinson,  Smollet,  Holmes,  Blair. 

t  Colony  Records.  "  Captain  Nathan  Gold  to  fill  any  vacancy  that  may  occur 
in  this  committee." 

At  the  same  session  (Oct.  1697,)  the  Assembly  ordered,  "  That  for  the  future 
there  shall  be  three  ov  four,  at  least,  of  the  most  able  and  judicious  persons  in  each 
county  appointed  Justices  of  the  Peace  for  the  year."  This  is  i\e  first  appoint- 
ment of  Justices  of  the  Peace  as  distinct  from  the  office  of  "  Magistrate." 


846  HISTOEY  OF   COIS'NECTICUT. 

gant  man  whom  he  had  seen  in  America,  and  one  whose 
appearance  most  resembled  that  of  an   Enghsh  nobleman. 

Owing  to  the  happy  termination  of  the  war  and  the  prom- 
ise of  a  new  state  of  things,  now  that  Fletcher  was  no  longer 
in  the  way  of  their  advancement,  the  inhabitants  of  Con- 
necticut again  looked  forward  to  the  future  with  new 
anticipations. 

Grateful  to  General  Winthrop  for  his  faithfulness  in  the 
discharge  of  his  trust  in  England,  the  people  elected  him 
governor  in  the  place  of  Mr.  Treat,  who  was  now  far  ad- 
vanced in  life.  Still,  to  show  their  unabated  confidence  in 
the  former  executive,  while  they  relieved  him  of  the  more 
cumbersome  burdens  of  office,  they  appointed  him  deputy 
governor. 

x\t  the  October  session  for  the  year  1698,  it  was  decided 
that  there  should  be  two  distinct  legislative  houses  in  the  Gen- 
eral Assembly.  The  governor,  or,  in  his  absence,  the  dep- 
uty governor,  and  magistrates,  were  to  constitute  the  upper 
house  ;  while  the  deputies,  the  immediate  representatives  of 
the  people,  were  to  make  up  what  was  called  the  lower 
house.  The  action  of  these  two  branches  of  the  legislature 
was  to  be  independent,  and  no  new  law  was  to  be  enacted  nor 
was  any  old  one  to  be  repealed  or  altered  without  the  separate 
action  and  consent  of  both  these  powers.  The  deputies 
were  to  choose  a  speaker  and  other  officers  much  as  is  now 
done  in  the  house  of  representatives.* 

This  new  organization  first  went  into  effect  at  the  May 
session  1699.  Mr.  John  Chester,  of  Wethersfield,  was  the 
first  speaker  of  the  lower  house,  and  Captain  William  Whi- 
ting was  the  first  clerk.  They  were  both  gentlemen  of  high 
character,  and  of  great  experience  in  public  affairs. 

In  June  1659,  Governor  Winthrop  had  received  permission 
from  the  General  Court  to  purchase  a  tract  of  land  at  Quini- 
bauff.  He  had  also  bought  another  valuable  estate  of  Al- 
laps  and  Mashaushawit,  the  native  proprietors,  lying  on 
either  bank  of  the  Quinibaug  river.  A  few  families  had 
*  Colonial  Records,  MS. 


PLAINFIELD  AND   DURHAM   INCORPORATED.  347 

already  settled  upon  these  lands  before  he  obtained  the  title  ; 
but  the  population  did  not  increase  to  any  considerable 
extent  until  after  the  death  of  the  governor.  In  1689,  a 
number  of  planters — a  large  share  of  whom  came  from  Mas- 
sachusetts— bought  of  the  heirs  of  Governor  Winthrop  the 
northern  portion  of  this  territory,  and  began  to  plant  and 
build  upon  it.  The  settlement  gradually  increased  in  popu- 
lation for  about  ten  years,  and  in  the  spi'ing  of  1699,  it 
became  a  town.  In  the  year  1700  its  name  was  changed 
from  Quinibaug  to  Plainfield. 

At  the  October  session  1698,  it  was  enacted  that  there 
should  be  a  new  plantation  made  at  "  Jeremy's  Farm."* 
The  settlement  began  in  1701,  and  in  1703  the  land  was 
confirmed  to  the  planters  by  a  patent.  The  Rev.  John 
Bulkley,  Samuel  Gilbert,  Michael  Taintor,  Samuel  Northam, 
John  Adams,  Jonathan  Kilborn,  Joseph  Pomeroy,  and  John 
Loomis  were  among  the  principal  proprietors. 

At  the  same  session,  leave  was  granted  to  certain  inhabit- 
ants of  Guilford  to  begin  a  plantation  at  a  place  called 
Cogingchaug.  The  settlement  had  a  feeble  infancy,  al- 
though there  were  thirty-one  original  applicants  who  signed 
the  petition.  The  two  first  planters  who  actually  removed 
and  settled  upon  the  tract,  were  Caleb  Seward  and  David 
Robinson.  Others  soon  followed  them.  In  May  1704,  it 
was  named  Durham.  Its  population  still  continued  small  for 
several  years.  In  1707,  it  contained  but  about  fifteen  fam- 
ilies. In  May  1708,  it  was  incorporated,  and  after  that  it 
began  to  thrive.  Northampton,  Stratford,  Milford,  and  other 
old  towns,  lent  to  it,  soon  after  its  incorporation,  some  of 
their  best  inhabitants. 

The  boundary  between  Connecticut  and  New  York  had 
long  been  a  fruitful  theme  of  dispute  and  controversy.  The 
line  agreed  upon  by  the  royal  commissioners  in  1683,  was 
confirmed  by  the  king  in  council,  March  28,  1700.  The 
government  of  New  York,  however,  being  dissatisfied  with 

t  Colony  Records,  MS. 


348  HISTORY   OF   CONNECTICUT. 

the  bounds  as  thus  determined,  refused  to  unite  with  Con- 
necticut in  running  the  line,  and  designating  it  by  proper 
landmarks.  The  General  Assembly  of  this  colony,  after 
making  repeated  applications  to  Lord  Cornbury  and  Gov- 
ernor Hunter  without  avail,  finally  appealed  to  the  king. 
In  consequence  of  this,  the  legislature  of  New  York,  in 
1719,  passed  an  act  empowering  their  governor  to  appoint 
commissioners  to  run  the  line  parallel  to  Hudson's  river,  to 
re-survey  the  former  lines,  and  to  erect  the  necessary  mon- 
uments to  distinguish  the  boundary.  It  was  not,  however, 
until  May,  1725,  that  the  commissioners  and  survey ers  of 
the  two  colonies  actually  commenced  operations.  Meeting 
at  Greenwich,  and  agreeing  upon  the  manner  in  which  they 
should  proceed,  the  survey  was  commenced  and  executed  in 
part,  when,  as  is  alleged,  in  consequence  of  some  disagree- 
ment, the  work  was  suspended,  and  each  party  made  a  re- 
port to  its  respective  legislature.  It  was  not  until  May, 
1731,  that  a  complete  settlement  of  the  boundary  was  per- 
fected. By  the  bounds,  as  finally  established,  Connecticut 
very  unwisely  ceded  to  New  York  a  tract  of  territory  ex- 
tending along  the  line  of  her  western  frontier,  estimated  at 
about  sixty  thousand  acres — comprising  some  of  the  most 
fertile  and  beautiful  lands  within  her  ancient  domain.  This 
territory,  from  its  peculiar  shape,  is  still  called  Oblong.  The 
pretended  consideration  for  this  summary  sale,  was  the  sur- 
render to  Connecticut  by  New  York  of  a  few  additional  miles 
of  sea-coast  and  the  lands  adjacent,  embracing  the  town  of 
Greenwich,  and  perhaps  a  part  of  Stamford — both  of  which 
townships  had  long  been  recognized  as  belonging  to  this  ju- 
risdiction. 

About  this  time  the  settlement  of  Voluntown  on  the  ex- 
treme eastern  border  of  the  colony  was  commenced.  The 
greater  part  of  the  territory  comprised  within  the  limits  of 
the  town,  was  granted  in  1696,  to  the  volunteers  of  the  Nar- 
ragansett  war,  from  which  circumstance  its  name  is  derived. 
The  township  was  originally  six  miles  square,  and  was 
surveyed  out  of  the  tract  known  as  the  "  conquered  land." 


[1702]  WAK   WITH   FEANCE   AND   SPAIN.  349 

In  1719,  the  Assembly  granted  a  large  addition  on  the  north, 
and  incorporated  the  town*. 

Nawbesetuck  was  set  off  from  Windham  in  1703,  and  in- 
corporated as  a  distinct  town  by  the  name  of  Mansfield. 
The  names  of  some  of  the  early  settlers  were,  Storrs,  Fen- 
ton,  Porter,  Rogers,  Hall,  and  Barrows. 

A  settlement  had  been  made  at  Danbury  as  early  as  1685, 
and  eight  years  afterwards  the  township  was  surveyed.  The 
town  patent  bears  date,  May  20,  1702. f  The  first  settlers 
and  principal  proprietors  were  James  Beebe,  of  Stratford, 
Thomas  Barnum,  Thomas  Taylor,  Francis  Bushnel,  James 
Benedict,  John  Hoyt,  Samuel  Benedict,  and  Judah  Gre- 
gory, all  of  Norwalk.  This  fine  old  town  has  since  been 
the  scene  of  tragic  interest,  which  has  indissolubly  linked  its 
history  and  its  fame  with  those  of  the  State. J 

At  the  October  session  of  the  Assembly,  1703,  it  was  en- 
acted that  the  town  of  Plainfield  should  be  divided,  and  that 
the  territory  on  the  west  side  of  the  Quinibaug  river  should 
form  a  distinct  township  by  the  name  of  Canterbury.  Ma- 
jor James  Fitch  and  Mr.  Solomon  Tracy  from  Norwich, 
Mr.  Tixhall  Ellsworth  and  Mr.  Samuel  Ashley  from  Hart- 
ford, and  Messrs.  John,  Richard,  and  Joseph  Woodward, 
William,  Obadiah,  and  Joseph  Johnson,  Josiah  and  Samuel 
Cleveland,  Elisha  Paine,  Paul  Davenport,  and  Henry  Adams, 
from  Massachusetts,  were  among  the  principal  settlers. § 

In  May,  1702,  war  was  declared  by  England,  Germany, 
and  the  Netherlands  against  France  and  Spain  ;  of  course 
the  American  colonies  were  soon  involved  in  the  conflict. 
At  its  October  session  (1703)  the  Assembly  once  more  took 
into  consideration  what  could  be  done  for  the  common  safety. 
A  requisition,  made  by  Governor  Dudley  and  the  General 
Court  of  Massachusetts,   for  one  hundred  men  to  be  sent 

*  Colony  Records,  MS ;  see  also  Barber,  443.     t  Colony  Records,   MS. 

i  Trumbull  i.  404. 

6  At  the  October  session,  1702,  it  was  ordered  that  Town  Clerks  should 
"  call  the  roll  at  each  town  meeting,  and  such  freemen  as  were  found  to  be  ab- 
sent should  be  subjected  to  a  fine  of  two  shillings,"  &c. 


850  HISTORY   OF   CONNECTICUT. 

from  Connecticut  to  aid  them  in  the  war  with  the  eastern 
Indians,  was  exhibited  at  this  session,  and  a  committee  of  war 
was  appointed,  with  plenary  powers  to  send  troops  into  Mas- 
sachusetts and  into  the  frontier  towns  of  Connecticut. 
Troops  were  also  ordered  forth  to  defend  our  towns  border- 
ing on  the  province  of  New  York.* 

The  Indians  grew  more  and  more  restive  during  the  win- 
ter. They  felt  the  irksomeness  of  peace.  Even  the  friend- 
ly Indians  were  ill  at  ease. 

On  the  15th  of  March  1704,  a  special  Assembly  was  called. 
The  civil  and  military  officers  in  all  the  towns  were  ordered 
to  take  especial  care  of  the  friendly  Indians,  and  keep  them 
from  yielding  to  the  bribery  and  solicitations  of  the  enemy. 
As  these  Indians  were  of  little  use  at  home  and  very  service- 
able in  ranging  the  woods  and  tracking  out  the  enemy,  it 
was  thought  best  to  employ  as  many  of  them  as  could  be  en- 
gaged in  active  service.  To  facilitate  this  object,  gentlemen 
were  appointed  to  beat  up  for  Indian  volunteers  and  enlist 
them.f 

Aside  from  the  one  hundred  men  sent  to  the  eastern  fron- 
tier in  answer  to  the  requisition  from  Massachusetts,  four 
hundred  men  were  raised  for  the  protection  of  the  county  of 
Hampshire,  and  for  the  defense  of  Connecticut. 

The  fears  of  Governor  Dudley  of  Massachusetts,  and  the 
exactions  of  Lord  Cornbury,  governor  of  New  York  and 
the  Jerseys,  kept  our  colony  in  constant  employ.  Lord 
Cornbury,  as  Fletcher  had  done  before  him,  made  demands 
for  more  money  than  a  weary  people,  and  almost  empty  treas- 
ury, would  warrant.  His  lordship  appears  to  have  been  ter- 
ribly frightened,  and  whenever  his  timidity  abandoned  him 

*■  At  the  same  session,  the  Town  Office  of  Lister  was  estabhshed.  An  act 
was  passed,  that  persons  convicted  of  selling  liquors  without  a  license,  or  keeping 
a  tippling  house,  should  be  publicly  whipped  if  the  fines,  costs,  and  security  for 
good  behavior,  were  not  paid  within  twenty-four  hours  after  such  conviction. 

t  These  friendly  Indians  were  not  to  go  beyond  certain  prescribed  limits  with- 
out a  written  order  ;  tliey  were  forbidden  to  have  any  thing  whatever  to  do  with 
the  "  enemy  Indians,"  but  were  to  seize  and  deliver  up  such  as  they  could  capture, 
for  which  they  were  to  receive  ten  pounds  apiece. — Colony  Records,  MS. 


CHARACTER   OF   DUDLEY  AND   CORNBURY,  351 

for  a  brief  interval,  his  malevolence  towards  Connecticut, 
and  his  ambition  to  unite  her  to  his  other  dominions,  rushed  in 
like  air  into  an  exhausted  receiver,  to  supply  its  place.  Gov- 
ernor Dudley  v^as  very  useful  to  Lord  Cornbury  in  suggest- 
ing things  to  say  to  the  authorities  in  England  that  would  be 
most  likely  to  poison  the  mind  of  Queen  Anne  against  Con- 
necticut, and  induce  her  majesty  to  make  an  effort,  as  two  of 
her  predecessors  had  done,  to  pluck  the  charter  out  of  the 
hands  of  the  people. 

Of  these  two  colonial  governors,  Dudley  was  possessed  of 
much  the  larger  share  of  shrewdness  and  intrigue.  He  had 
been  a  member  of  Sir  Edmund  Andross'  council,*  and  had 
shared  in  the  bitterness  of  his  prejudices  against  the  colony. 
Besides,  he  was  even  then  looking  forward  to  the  time  when 
he  should  fill  the  executive  chair  in  place  of  Andross,  and  was 
anxious  to  further  his  prospects  for  promotion,  by  showing  as 
much  zeal  as  possible  in  this  shameful  war  waged  by  a  king 
against  the  rights  of  his  subjects. 

This  darling  object  of  his  ambition,  so  long  entertained, 
Dudley  pursued  with  the  steadiness  of  aim  that  belongs  to 
all  keen-sighted,  intriguing  men,  who  lay  their  plans  quite 
beneath  the  calm  surface  of  society,  as  well-skilled  anglers 
play  their  hooks  in  the  eddies  and  under-currents  that  circle 
the  depths  of  a  shaded  pool.  With  this  view  he  had,  before 
the  death  of  King  William,  taken  all  possible  precautionary 
measures  against  the  promotion  of  men  who  were  thought 
to  be  friendly  to  the  liberties  of  New  England.  Hence, 
Vi^hen  he  found  that  Sir  Henry  Ashurst  had  been  appointed 
agent  for  Connecticut,  he  used  all  his  influence  to  induce  so 
good  a  .friend  of  the  colony  as  he  knew  him  to  be,  not  to  ac- 
cept the  trust.  He  made  repeated  attacks  upon  the  New 
England  charters,  and  employed  force  as  well  as  fraud  to  get 
possession  of  them  or  render  them  inoperative. 

He  had  already  attained  the  first  object  of  his  ambition — 
he  was  governor  of  Massachusetts ;  but  this  was  only  a  sin- 
gle round  in  the  ladder  that  he  had  proposed  to  himself  to 

*  Hutchinson. 


852  HISTORY   OF   CONXECTICUT. 

climb.  Connecticut  was  fast  increasing  in  population  and 
wealth.  From  the  fact  that  she  spent  her  resources  so  free- 
ly in  defense  of  the  other  colonies,  she  appeared  to  be  much 
more  opulent  than  she  really  was.  How  desirable  to  add  all 
this  rich  taxable  domain  to  the  resources  of  a  colonial  ex- 
chequer !  Besides,  was  she  not  arrogant  and  impertinent  in 
persisting  to  keep  her  charter  and  pretending  to  exercise  un- 
der it  rights  that  had  been  relinquished  by  her  neighbors  ? 
How  pleasant  to  strip  the  plumage  from  this  wild  game-bird, 
and  feast  his  revenge  with  a  morsel  that  had  eluded  his  ap- 
petite so  long ! 

So  industrious  had  Dudley  been,  and  so  adroitly  had  he 
played  his  game,  that  towards  the  close  of  William's  reign 
he  had  succeeded  in  having  a  bill  prepared  to  re-unite  all 
the  charter  governments  to  the  crown.  Scarcely  was  Queen 
Anne  seated  upon  the  throne,  when  it  was  brought  into  parlia- 
ment. This  bill  aimed  not  only  at  the  New  England  charters, 
but  also  at  those  of  East  and  West  New  Jersey,  Pennsylva- 
nia, Maryland,  and  the  Bahama  and  Lucay  Islands,  because 
it  averred  that  these  charters  were  injurious  to  the  trade  of 
the  kingdom,  discouraging  to  the  other  plantations,  and  ten- 
ded to  cut  off  the  revenues  of  the  crown.  It  went  on  to 
charge  the  charter  governments  with  encouraging  piracy 
and  every  mode  of  contraband  trade,  and  declared  "  That 
all  and  singular,  matters,  and  things,  contained  in  any  char- 
ters or  letters  patent,  granted  by  the  great  seal  of  England, 
by  any  of  his  royal  predecessors,  by  his  present  majesty,  or 
the  late  queen,  to  any  of  the  said  plantations,  or  to  any  per- 
sons in  them,  should  be  utterly  void,  and  of  none  effect.  It 
further  enacted,  that  all  such  power,  authority,  privileges, 
and  jurisdictions,  should  be,  and  were  re-united,  annexed  to, 
and  vested  in  his  majesty,  his  heirs  and  successors,  in  right 
of  the  crown  of  England,  to  all  intents  and  purposes,  as 
though  no  such  charters  or  letters  patent  had  been  had  or 
made."* 

*  Bill  on  file.     Duclley  continued  in  the  office  of  Governor  of  Massachusetts 
until   1715.      lie  liad  previously  been  President  of  Massachusetts  and  New 


ASHUEST  DEFENDS  THE  COLONY.         353 

This  blow  was  well  understood  by  Sir  Henry  Ashurst,  the 
agent  of  the  colony,  to  be  aimed  mainly  at  Connecticut. 
His  honorable  and  manly  nature  revolted  at  the  injustice 
thus  attempted  to  be  practiced  under  the  sanction  of  legisla- 
tion. He  therefore  hastened  to  prefer  his  petition  to  the 
House  of  Lords,  wherein  he  set  forth  the  objects  of  the  bill, 
and  prayed  that  it  might  not  have  the  sanction  of  parlia- 
ment. The  petition  stated  at  full  length  the  condition  of 
Connecticut,  and  the  wrong  that  would  be  practiced  upon 
her  inhabitants  were  the  charter  of  Charles  II.  to  be  annul- 
led; that  her  institutions  were  peculiar  to  herself;  and  that 
all  the  relations  of  her  people,  the  very  tenures  by  which 
they  held  their  property,  their  religious  privileges,  and  their 
social  texture,  were  all  the  growth  of  the  charter ;  and  if 
that  should  be  taken  from  them,  they  would  be  exposed  to 
the  most  radical  changes,  and  perhaps  involved  in  utter 
ruin ;  that  the  charges  of  piracy  and  contraband  trade,  re- 
cited at  length  in  the  bill,  whatever  might  be  true  else- 
where, could  not  be  truthfully  brought  against  this  colony, 
whose  people  were  agricultural  in  their  habits,  and  whose 
authorities  administered  their  offices  with  great  simplicity 
and  purity. 

This  petition  finally  obtained  a  hearing  before  the  House  of 
Lords.  It  was  well  presented  in  behalf  of  the  colony.  As 
at  other  times,  the  history  of  the  people  in  whose  behalf  it 
was  made  was  briefly  recited ;  their  hardships  in  commencing 
the  settlement ;  their  efforts  to  defend  it ;  their  long-tried 
loyalty ;  the  sacrifices  that  they  had  made  of  time,  money 
and  hfe,  to  keep  inviolate  the  honor  of  the  British  flag  against 
so  many  enemies  ;  and  many  other  reasons,  were  urged  with 
great  earnestness. 

The  general  effect  that  the  bill  would  have  upon  the  en- 
terprise of  the  nation,  the  dishonor  that  would  be  brought 
upon  the  royal  name,  were  it  once  understood  that  no  faith 

Hampshire ;  Chief  Justice  of  Massachusetts  and  New  York  ;  Agent  of  Massa- 
chusetts in  England ;  and  Lieut.  Governor  of  the  Isle  of  Wight.  He  died  in 
Boston,  1720,  aged  72.     Blake's  Un.  Biog.  Die. 

23 


,  354  HISTORY   OP   COXNECTICUT. 

could  be  put  in  the  grants  made  by  the  crown,  and  the  un- 
settled state  of  afFah's  that  would  prevail  throughout  all  the 
business  relations  of  the  empire,  were  old  titles  thus  to  be 
torn  up  by  the  roots,  were  not  left  out  of  view.  Beset  with 
such  powerful  weapons,  the  bill  was  defeated. 

Enraged  at  the  failure  of  this  favorite  method  of  accom- 
plishing his  ends,  Dudley  now  set  himself  to  the  task  of 
playing  upon  the  prejudices  and  ill-concealed  ambition  of 
Cornbury.  He  affected  to  take  the  part  of  his  brother  gov- 
ernor, and  to  favor  his  views.  He  assured  Cornbury  of  his 
own  disinterestedness  and  of  his  willingness  to  aid  him  in 
bringing  Connecticut  under  his  government.  He  was  only 
too  happy  to  serve  his  lordship  in  any  way.  Independent  of 
personal  considerations  he  was  actuated  by  a  sense  of  jus- 
tice. Not  only  should  Connecticut  be  joined  to  New  York, 
but  the  southern  colonies  should  be  added  to  them. 

Cornbury,  weak  man  as  he  was,  could  hardly  be  expected  to 
resist  these  flattering  promises  nor  did  the  chances  of  success 
seem  doubtful.  He  was  himself  a  near  relative  of  Queen 
Anne,*  and  had  a  circle  of  aristocratic  friends  who  were  al- 
lied to  him  by  blood  and  who  possessed  the  confidence  of  her 
majesty.  Connecticut,  also,  as  all  the  other  states  have 
done,  cherished  some  unhappy  sons,  who,  from  disappointed 
political  hopes  or  from  pecuniary  motives,  were  only  waiting 
for  sufficient  vitality  to  fasten  their  poisonous  fangs  into  the 
bosom  that  had  warmed  them.  These  malcontents, — I  will 
not  name  them  in  my  textf — could  of  course  be  made  useful 
to  Dudley  in  any  enterprise  that  was  likely  to  advance  their 
fortunes  or  feed  their  revenge. 

As  Dudley  had  failed  in  one  attempt  upon  the  liberties  of 

*  Lord  Cornbury  (Edward  Hyde)  was  a  son  of  the  Earl  of  Carendon,  and  a 
first  cousin  of  Queen  Anne.  (See  Agnes  Strickland's  "  Lives  of  the  Queens  of 
England,"  Vol.  xii.  p.  43.)  lie  was  a  bigot  in  religion,  and  oppressive  and  un- 
just in  his  administration  of  the  government.  He  was  removed  from  ^office  in 
1708,  and  died  in  England  in  1723.     Blake's  Un.  Biog.  Die. 

+  Perhaps  the  most  conspicuous  of  these  ambitious  and  restless  spirits  was 
Major  Edward  Palms,  a  son-in-law  of  Governor  Winthrop.  His  disaffection 
with  the  colonial  government  seems  to  have  arisen  mainly  from  the  fact  that, 


[1704.]  BULKLEY'S   "will  A.ND  DOOM."  855 

the  colony,  he  determined  to  lay  the  foundations  of  his  sec- 
ond scheme  with  greater  solidity.  It  was  obvious  that  the 
bill  to  rob  Connecticut  of  her  charter  had  failed  mainly  from 
the  fact  that  none  of  the  specific  charges  named  in  it 
had  been  previously  laid  against  her  and  substantiated  by 
legal  evidence.  It  was  decided,  therefore,  to  convict  her  au- 
thorities of  mal-administration,  contraband  trade,  piracy,  and 
the  other  crimes  named  in  the  bill  of  abominations  whose 
fate  had  cost  its  authors  so  many  keen  regrets. 

With  the  aid  of  Cornbury,  therefore,  Dudley  lost  no  time 
in  filing  his  charges  of  complaint  against  the  colony.  False 
witnesses  were  procured  to  establish  these  charges,  and  all 
the  customary  modes  of  making  evidence,  were  resorted  to 
with  a  perseverance  that  evinced  how  resolute  aAd  unscru- 
pulous were  the  principal  actors  in  the  scene.  Even  the 
blandishments  of  letters  were  brought  to  delight  the  English 
mind  with  one  of  the  most  remarkable  fictions  that  has  ever 
had  its  origin  in  the  human  brain.  I  need  hardly  say  that  I 
refer  to  Bulkley's  "Will  and  Doom," — previously  alluded  to 
— a  work  that  has  made  indeed  all  other  American  histori- 

the  General  Assembly  decided  against  his  application  to  annul  the  will  of  Gov. 
Winthrop.  It  seems  that  Palms  had  not  been  named  in  the  will  of  the  governor, 
as  he  claimed  he  ought  to  have  been  ;  but  the  Assembly  declared  in  favor  of  the 
will  because  the  wife  of  Palms  had  previously  deceased.  Palms  appealed  to 
the  king  in  council,  and  proceeded  to  England  to  prosecute  his  case.  The  council, 
however,  confirmed  the  decision  of  Connecticut.  Maj .  Palms  died  in  New  Lon- 
don, March  21,  1714,  aged  78. 

Nicholas  Hallam,  also  a  leader  in  the  crusade  against  Connecticut,  became  dis- 
affected with  the  colony  in  a  similar  manner.  His  step-father  (Mr.  Liveen,)  had 
bequeathed  most  of  his  property  to  "  the  ministry  of  New  London,"  and  Hallam 
determined  to  break  the  will.  The  case  was  tried  before  the  county  court  and 
the  court  of  assistants,  both  of  which  decided  that  the  will  was  valid.  The  suit 
was  carried  to  England,  where  after  a  delay  of  more  than  four  years,  the  decision 
of  the  Connecticut  courts  was  sustained.  See  Caulkins'  History  of  New  London, 
pp.  222—228. 

Palms  and  Hallam,  excited  as  they  were,  stood  ready  to  take  sides  with  any  one 
who  might  be  brought  in  collision  with  Connecticut  from  whatever  cause.  Hence, 
Cornbury  and  Dudley  found  in  them  efficient  friends ;  hence,  too,  their  active 
sympathy  in  behalf  of  the  Mohegans  and  their  zeal  for  the  "  Mason  heirs,"  as  will 
hereafter  appear. 


856  HISTORY  OF  CONNECTICUT. 

cal  extravagances,  save  Peters'  "  History  of  Connecticut," 
of  which  it  was  the  type  and  herald,  tame  and  cold. 

This  book  had  been  written  soon  after  the  close  of  Sir 
Edmund  Andross'  administration,  and  was  now  resuscitated 
and  sent  over  from  New  York  by  Lord  Cornbury,  with  some 
other  documentary  evidence  against  the  colony.  It  was  re- 
ceived in  England  on  the  16th  of  January,  1705.* 

Aside  from  the  accusations  before  made  against  the  colony, 
the  complaint  alleged  that  it  was  a  place  of  refuge  for  sea- 
men, servants,  malefactors,  and  other  fugitives  from  justice 
who  fled  from  the  other  colonies,  that  it  also  took  under  its 
protection  young  men  who  went  there  from  New  York  and 
Massachusetts  to  avoid  taxation  resulting  from  the  wars, 
that  had  thrown  such  heavy  burdens  upon  all  the  northern 
colonies  except  Connecticut ;  that  this  colony  had  refused  to 
aid  in  the  fortification  of  New  York  and  Albany,  and  had 
failed   to    send  men   to   defend   Massachusetts    against    the 

*  This  singular  work,  though  anonymous,  is  supposed  to  be  from  the  pen  of  the 
Rev.  Gershom  Bulkley,  who  graduated  at  Harvard  College  in  1659  ;  was  settled 
in  the  ministry  at  New  London  from  1661  to  1666,  and  in  Wethersfield  from  that 
latter  date  until  1677.  He  then  removed  to  Glastenbury  where  he  practiced 
medicine  for  over  thirty  years,  and  died  in  1713.  As  a  politician,  he  was  opposed 
to  the  assumption  of  the  government  by  the  colonial  authorities  in  1689,  after  the 
arrest  of  Andross.  In  1689,  he  published  a  pamphlet  on  the  affairs  of  Connecti- 
cut, but  no  copy  of  it  is  now  known  to  exist.  (See  Dr.  Chapin's  Hist,  of  Glasten- 
bury.) "  Will  and  Doom"  was  doubtless  written  soon  after.  December  15, 1692, 
Major  Palms,  Gershom  Bulkley  and  Wm.  Rosewell  appended  to  the  MS.  volume 
their  certificate,  in  which  they  say,  that  to  their  "  best  knowledge  of  things,  the 
state  of  affairs  in  Connecticut  is  therein  truly  represented,"  and  they  "  doubt  not  but 
every  material  passage  in  it  may  easily  be  proved  by  them."  To  be  sure,  it  is  not 
often  that  an  author  volunteers  a  formal  certificate  of  the  probable  truth  of  his 
own  work  ;  but  in  this  case,  Mr.  Bulkley  may  have  done  so  for  the  purpose  of 
better  concealing  the  authorship  of  the  volume,  which  was  not  calculated  to  in- 
crease his  popularity  in  New  England.  The  MS.  was  indorsed  as  follows,  on  its 
arrival  in  England  :  "  Mr.  Bulkley's  '  "Will  and  Doom,'  relating  to  grievances  and 
irregularities  in  the  Province  of  Connecticut."  "  Received  with  Lord  Cornbury's 
of  the  6th  of  November  1704.  Vide  New  York,  Bundle  X,  18."  "Received 
16  January  ;  read  1st.  February  1704-5.    Entered  Proprieties,  fol.  126.  No.  20." 

Some  have  supposed  that  the  book  in  question  was  written  by  the  Rev.  John 
Bulkley,  of  Colchester — but  the  improbability  of  this  is  apparent  from  the  fact, 
that  he  did  not  graduate  until  1699,  and  "  Will  and  Doom"  is  not  the  work  of  a  boy. 


[1705.]  OWANECO'S  PETITION".  357 

French  and  Indians.*  All  this  time  Dudley  smiled  blandly 
upon  the  colony  that  he  was  thus  plotting  to  destroy,  and  in 
a  letter  that  bore  almost  an  even  date  with  these  infamous 
allegations,  he  thanked  the  General  Assembly  for  the  liberal 
supplies  that  they  had  bestowed  upon  Massachusetts,  and 
the  readiness  with  which  they  had  responded  to  his  requisi- 
tions. 

I  have  said  it  was  a  part  of  the  plan  of  operations  to  con- 
ciliate certain  malcontents  who  lived  in  Connecticut.  These 
men  now  aided  Dudley  in  furnishing  evidence  against  the 
colony,  by  giving  currency  to  a  ridiculous  story  that  the 
General  Assembly  had  abused  Owaneco,  chief  of  the  Mohe- 
gans,  and  had  driven  his  tribe  from  their  planting  grounds. 
Whoever  knows  any  thing  of  the  history  of  that  tribe  and  of 
the  sacrifices  made  by  Connecticut  to  protect  it  from  ene- 
mies that  would  have  annihilated  it  long  before  this  con- 
spiracy was  made,  can  judge  what  credit  should  be  given  to 
a  tale  that  contradicts  all  the  records  that  have  been  trans- 
mitted to  us  relating  to  the  affairs  of  that  expensive  and 
burdensome  tribe.  Yet,  inconsistent  as  was  the  accusation, 
it  was  penned  into  a  petition  to  the  queen,  ostensibly  in 
behalf  of  the  Mohegans,  but  really  with  no  other  motives 
than  avarice  and  revenge  on  the  part  of  the  applicants,  repre- 
senting the  General  Assembly  in  such  false  colors  that  it 
could  not  fail  to  deceive  the  ears  for  which  it  was  intended, 
especially  when  presented  and  advocated  by  such  men  as 
Dudley.  Had  the  complaint  charged  the  colony  with  un- 
kindness  towards  the  Pequots  after  the  strength  of  their 
tribe  had  been  broken,  and  with  yielding  to  the  solicitations 
of  Uncas,  or  submitting  to  the  cruel  robberies  that  he  was 
allowed  to  perpetrate  upon  that  suffering  people ;  or  had  it 

*  Nothing  could  surpass  the  wicked  falsehood  of  these  two  charges,  unless  it 
•were  the  ingratitude  that  could  allow  the  governors  of  these  invaded  colonies  to 
deny  the  services  of  our  troops  in  saving  their  inhabitants  from  the  tomahawk 
and  the  ruinous  taxes  that  our  people  paid  with  cheerfulness  to  answer  pecuniary 
demands,  sometimes  entirely  unnecessary  and  often  greatly  exaggerated — services 
rendered  and  taxes  paid,  as  in  the  case  of  New  Tork  under  Leisler's  administra- 
tion, in  behalf  of  a  people  who  either  could  not  or  would  not  help  themselves. 


858  HISTORY   OF   CONNECTICUT. 

charged  Connecticut,  in  common  with  the  rest  of  New  Eng- 
land, with  the  guilt  that  often  accompanies  a  too  easy  credu- 
lity, because  she  had  lent  a  willing  ear  to  Mohegan  prejudices, 
and  consented  to  the  judicial  murder  of  Miantinomoh ;  or 
because  her  fears  had  led  her  to  sacrifice  Nanuntenoo,  there 
might  have  been  some  show  of  justice  in  the  arraignment. 
But  it  has  always  been  the  fate  of  Connecticut  to  be  put 
upon  her  deliverance  for  imaginary  crimes,  for  the  reason 
that  her  faults  in  some  cases  were  too  slight,  and  in  others  at- 
tended with  too  palliating  circumstances  to  justify  the  malice 
of  her  enemies  or  afford  a  palpable  ground  of  conviction. 

The  sympathies  of  the  queen  were  touched  at  the  sup- 
posed sufferings  of  the  Mohegans,  so  wantonly  inflicted  by 
her  English  subjects,  and,  without  waiting  to  allow  Connecti- 
cut a  hearing,  she  granted,  on  the  19th  of  July  1704,  a  com- 
mission to  Dudley  and  Palms,  the  arch-enemies  of  the 
colony,  and  others,  their  instruments — twelve  in  all — to  hear 
and  try  the  cause  of  the  afflicted  Owaneco  against  Connecti- 
cut.* 

'^  Preparatory  to  this  farcical  court,  on  the  5th  of  July  1705, 
John  Chandler,  in  behalf  of  Owaneco — whose  ancestors  had 
received  the  consideration-money  more  than  twice  over 
for  all  the  lands  that  had  ever  gone  out  of  their  possession — 
and  Mason,  and  the  other  claimants,  in  behalf  of  themselves, 
began  a  survey  of  the  Mohegan  country.  They  ran  out  the 
lines  in  accordance  vi^ith  their  own  claims,  and  having  com- 
pleted the  perambulation,  they  made  a  map  of  the  territory 
such  as  suited  well  enough  the  uses  of  a  hearing  before  a 
tribunal  that  was  understood  to  have  pre-judged  the  case. 

The  lines  as  run  by  Chandler  and  his  assistants  had  for 
their  southern  boundary  a  large  rock  in  Connecticut  river 
near  Eight-Mile-Island,  in  Lyme,  and  thence  took  an  easter- 
ly course  through  Lyme,  New  London,  and  Groton,  to  a  lit- 

*  The  Court  of  Commissioners  consisted  of  the  following  persons,  viz. : — Joseph 
Dudley,  Esq.,  President,  Edward  Palms,  Giles  Sylvester,  Jahleel  Brenton, 
Nathaniel  Byfield,  Thomas  Hooker,  James  Avery,  John  Avery,  John  Morgan, 
and  Thomas  LefEngwcll.     The  other  two  appear  to  have  been  absent. 


[1705.]  THE   MOHEGAN   CONTROVERSY.  859 

tie  lake  in  the  north-eastern  part  of  Stonington,  called  Ah- 
yo-sup-suck ;  thence  northerly,  to  another  lake  called  Mah- 
man-suck,  thence  to  a  place  called  the  Whetstone  hills,  and 
thence  to  Man-hum-squeeg,  or  the  Whetstone  country. 
From  this  last  named  point  (if  indeed  it  was  a  point)  the 
line  veered  off  in  a  south-westerly  course,  a  distance  of 
several  miles,  to  the  upper  falls  in  the  Quinibaug  river; 
here,  taking  a  new  track,  it  darted  away  to  the  north-west 
through  Pomfret,  Ashford,  Willington,  and  Tolland,  to  the 
Notch  of  Bolton  mountain,  and  thence,  "instinct  with  fire 
and  nitre,"  the  liberal-minded  surveyors  took  wing  in  a 
southerly  course,  across  Bolton,  Hebron,  and  East  Haddam, 
to  the  place  of  beginning. 

Having  completed  his  survey,  his  map,  and  all  his  other 
enginery  of  self-conviction — and  who  could  judge  so  well  as 
his  excellency  of  the  machinery  best  calculated  to  subdue 
his  scruples — Governor  Dudley  carried  his  court  into  Con- 
necticut, and  planted  it  in  a  convenient  place  within  the 
limits  of  Stonington, 

As  Connecticut  had  not  been  allowed  a  hearing  as  to  the 
propriety  of  creating  this  special  court,  so  did  the  court  fail 
to  serve  her  with  a  copy  of  the  commission  that  was  to  try 
the  question  of  title  and  jurisdiction  to  some  of  the  most 
valuable  lands  within  her  boundaries  ; — so  that  she  remained 
in  ignorance  till  the  day  of  the  hearing,  whether  the  com- 
mission merely  authorized  a  court  of  inquiry,  or  whether  it 
was  to  determine  the  title  to  the  lands. 

She  therefore  sent  a  committee  to  be  present  at  the  open- 
ing of  the  court,  and  find  out  what  was  the  extent  of  its 
powers.  If  it  was  a  court  of  inquiry,  they  were  instruct- 
ed to  defend ;  if  it  was  designed  to  try  the  title,  they  were 
commanded  to  enter  their  solemn  protest  in  behalf  of  the 
colony,  and  withdraw  in  silence.  At  the  same  time,  all  the 
inhabitants  of  Connecticut  who  claimed  any  interest  in  the 
controverted  lands,  were  forbidden  to  put  in  any  plea  or 
make  any  answer  before  the  court.  The  names  of  the  gen- 
tlemen composing  this  committee,  were  William  Pitkin,  John 


360  "  HISTORY   OF   CONNECTICUT. 

Chester,  Eleazer  Kimberly,  Esqrs.,  Maj.  William  Whiting, 
Mr.  John  Elliott,  and  Mr.  Richard  Lord. 

Governor  Winthrop,  on  the  21st  of  August,  wrote  a  letter 
to  Dudley,  in  which  he  is  careful  to  speak  of  the  commission 
as  authorizing  only  a  preliminary  court. 

When  the  committee  had  arrived  at  the  place  of  trial  and 
had  learned  that  it  was  the  intention  of  the  tribunal  to  set- 
tle questions  of  title,  they  tendered  to  Dudley  their  written 
protest.  After  sketching,  with  a  few  hasty  strokes,  the  folly 
and  wantonness  of  the  charges  brought  against  Connecticut, 
the  committee  go  on  to  say,  "  We  must  declare  against  and 
prohibit  all  such  proceedings  as  contrary  to  law  and  to  the 
letters  patent  under  the  great  seal  of  England  granted  to  this 
her  majesty's  colony."  In  conclusion  they  add,  "  It  seems 
strange  to  us  that  your  excellency  should  proceed  in  such  a 
manner,  without  first  communicating  your  commission  to 
the  General  Assembly  of  this  her  majesty's  colony." 

After  an  ex  parte  hearing  of  a  single  day,  in  which  the 
Indian,  Owaneco,  who  probably  did  not  care  a  whiff  of  to- 
bacco smoke  about  the  controversy,  aside  from  the  paltry 
presents  that  he  might  have  expected  for  allowing  his  name 
to  be  used  in  it,  and  the  other  applicants,  had  it  all  their  own 
way,  and  procured  a  judgment  in  their  favor.* 

If  ever  there  was  a  piece  of  judicial  villainy  it  was  this, 
by  which  the  property  of  hundreds  of  persons,  and  the  juris- 
diction of  a  colony,  were  disposed  of  without  serving  any 
notice  upon  the  respondents  by  the  adverse  party  in  interest, 
who  had  caused  themselves  to  be  constituted  a  tribunal  to 
sit  in  judgment  upon  their  own  untenable  claims. 

*  The  Court  adjudged  to  Owaneco  and  the  Mohegans  a  tract  of  land  in  New 
London,  called  Massapeag ;  and  another  tract  in  the  northern  part  of  the  same 
town,  containing  about  eleven  hundred  acres  ;  also,  a  tract  in  Lyme,  two  miles  in 
breadth  and  nine  miles  in  length,  together  with  the  whole  tract  contained  in  the 
town  of  Colchester.  These  lands  had  been  obtained  by  conquest,  purchase  treaty, 
and  other  lawful  means,  and  had  been  settled  upon  by  persons  who  held  their 
deeds  or  patents  from  the  Assembly.  The  court  ordered  Connecticut  immedi- 
ately to  restore  all  these  lands  to  Owaneco  ;  and  also  prohibited  all  her  majesty's 
subjects  from  settling  upon  or  improving  certain  other  large  tracts,  until  a  fur- 
ther hearing  and  determination  of  the  case. 


[1705]  TRIAL   OF   CONNECTICUT,  .     361 

I  have  said  that  this  Mohegan  affair,  as  far  as  Dudley 
was  interested  in  it,  was  designed  to  prejudice  the  mind  of 
the  queen  against  Connecticut,  so  that  she  might  be  the 
more  readily  induced  to  regard  the  people  as  outlaws,  who 
had  forfeited  their  charter  privileges,  and  were  entitled  to  no 
mercy  at  her  hands.  The  fact  that  the  hearing  was  not  had 
until  after  the  trial  of  the  principal  allegations  against  Con- 
necticut before  the  queen  in  council,  made  little  difference. 
The  charge  having  been  made,  the  chief  mischief  was  ac- 
complished, as  the  colony  was  in  much  the  same  condition 
that  an  accused  person  is  while  awaiting  his  trial  for  the 
commission  of  a  crime.  It  is  true  that  theoretically  the  law 
presumes  him  innocent  till  proved  guilty,  but  no  legal 
maxim  or  presumption  can  do  away  with  the  impression 
made  upon  the  public  mind  even  by  a  false  accusation.* 

On  the  12th  of  February,  1705,  after  the  last  bundle  of 
evidence  that  had  been  shipped  by  Cornbury  from  America 
was  received  in  England,  the  trial  of  Connecticut  for  her 
charter,  which  had  been  postponed  at  the  solicitation  of  Sir 
Henry  Ashurst,  in  order  that  he  might  receive  further  evi- 
dence and  further  instructions  from  the  General  Assembly, 
came  on  before  the  queen  in  council. 

Dudley  had  prepared  his  case  with  great  address,  and  Corn- 
bury  had  seconded  him  with  an  equal  amount  of  industry 
and  spite.  The  former  had  dug  up  from  the  archives  of 
King  William's  reign  a  precedent  in  favor  of  the  proposition 
that  the  crown  had  power  to  appoint  a  governor  over  Con- 
necticut. He  had  also  attempted  to  get  an  opinion  from 
the  then  acting  attorney-general  favorable  to  his  case  ;  but 

*  This  famous  "  Mohegan  case,"  after  having  agitated  Connecticut  more  than 
seventy  years,  was  finally  determined  in  favor  of  the  colony  in  1743.  The  lands 
in  dispute,  or  some  part  of  them,  had  been  acquired  by  Major  Mason,  as  agent 
of  Connecticut — who,  in  a  somewhat  informal  manner,  surrendered  them  to 
the  colony  in  March,  1661.  (See  J.  H.  Trumbull's  Colonial  Records,  i.  359.) 
The  heirs  of  Mason,  and  certain  other  designing  persons,  subsequently  instituted 
a  claim  for  the  lands,  and  prosecuted  it  with  great  tenacity.  The  pretense  that 
the  Mohegans  were  oppressed  or  driven  off  by  the  English  settlers,  was  simply 
designed  for  effect. 


862  HISTORY   OF   CONJS^ECTICUT. 

the  best  that  he  could  induce  the  guarded  functionary  to  do 
for  him,  was  to  make  the  statement  "  that  if  it  were  as  Gov- 
ernor Dudley  had  represented,  there  was  a  defect  in  the  Gov- 
ernment, that  the  colony  was  not  able  to  defend  itself  and 
in  imminent  danger  of  being  possessed  by  the  queen's  ene- 
mies ;  and  that  in  such  case,  the  queen  might  send  a  governor 
for  civil  and  military  government,  but  not  to  alter  the  lav)s 
and  customs."  Nobody  could  find  any  fault  with  this  opin- 
ion. It  would  have  been  equally  tenable  had  he  said,  "  if 
the  authorities  harbored  pirates  and  carried  on  contraband 
trade,"  as  Governor  Dudley  had  represented,  "  they  ought  to 
be  adjudged  guilty  of  felony  without  the  benefit  of  clergy." 
There  is  much  significance  in  a  legal  opinion  that  is  heralded 
with  an  "  if."  It  implies  at  least  that  the  facts  have  not 
yet  been  passed  upon. 

As  had  been  the  case  in  the  Mohegan  affair,  so  in  this  most 
vital  matter,  the  grounds  of  the  accusation  and  the  argu- 
ments that  w^ould  be  set  up  by  the  complainants,  had  been 
kept  secret  from  the  agent  of  the  colony.  True,  however, 
to  the  interests  of  his  principals,  as  on  former  occasions  he 
had  proved  himself,  Sir  Henry  Ashurst*  nobly  stood  his 
ground.  He  knew  that  this  was  a  desperate  struggle  for 
colonial  existence  against  injustice  and  oppression,  and  that 
it  called  for  all  the  address  of  which  he  was  master,  and  all 
the  influence  that  he  could  command.  He  was  a  brother-in- 
law  of  Lord  Paget,  a  nobleman  of  fine  abilities  and  power- 
ful connections.  His  lordship,  whose  sense  of  justice  was 
outraged  by  the  behavior  of  the  applicants,  magnanimously 
espoused  the  cause  of  Connecticut,  and  threw  into  the  scale 
that  he  desired  should  preponderate,  the  full  weight  of  his 
disinterested  influence  with  the  queen's  favorites  and  the 
members  of  the  council.  He  procured  the  professional  aid 
of  two  of  the    best  advocates  in  England,  who    met  the 

*  This  gentleman  was  a  son  of  Henry  Ashurst,  Esq.,  member  of  parliament, 
and  a  firm  friend  to  New  England.  Sir  Ileniy  had  previously  been  the  agent  of 
Massachusetts  at  the  Court  of  Great  Britain ;  but  accepted  the  agency  of  Con- 
necticut in  1704,  and  continued  to  act  in  that  capacity  until  his  death  in  1710. 


[irOS]  DEFENSE   OF   CONNECTICUT.  863 

sophistries  and  exposed  the  false  statements  of  Dudley, 
Cornbury,  Congreve,  and  the  whole  host  of  assailants, 
who  argued  the  cause  for  an  hour  and  a  half  before  the 
council  with  great  eloquence  and  force.  I  need  not  go  over 
the  grounds  urged  by  these  gentlemen,  as  they  will  suggest 
themselves  to  the  reader  who  has  had  the  patience  to  peruse 
the  preceding  chapter. 

After  exposing  the  intrigues  of  Dudley  and  his  fellow  con- 
spirators, the  counsel  in  behalf  of  the  colony  went  on  to 
say,  that  whatever  might  be  the  real  truth  in  relation  to  the 
allegations,  it  was  a  sacred  right  extended  to  all  British  sub- 
jects by  the  constitution  itself,  that  all  persons  and  corpora- 
tions should  have  an  oportunity  to  be  heard,  before  any 
legal  proceeding  against  them  could  be  the  basis  of  a  judg- 
ment. The  advocates  powerfully  pressed  upon  the  minds  of 
the  council  the  consideration,  that  as  this  necessary  pre-re- 
quisite  had  not  been  complied  with  in  relation  to  the  govern- 
or and  company  of  Connecticut,  it  would  be  doing  them  a 
great  and  unprecedented  wrong  to  take  from  them  their  most 
precious  rights — nay,  their  very  political  life,  without  giving 
them  the  opportunity  of  confronting  their  accusers.  Then  a 
well-timed  allusion  was  made  to  the  motives  that  led  to  the 
accusation,  and  a  very  striking  portraiture  was  drawn  of 
the  overshadowing  growth  and  noxious  qualities  of  execu- 
tive ambition  in  a  remote  part  of  the  empire,  beyond  the 
conservative  influences  of  her  majesty's  personal  supervision. 
The  patronage  attending  such  a  position  as  that  held  by 
Dudley,  the  facility  of  procuring  witnesses  who,  from  inte- 
rested motives,  could  be  induced  to  falsify  their  testimony, 
were  dwelt  upon  as  so  man}'-  facts  that  should  put  the  coun- 
cil upon  their  guard  while  the  limited  power  of  the  governor 
of  Connecticut  under  the  charter,  watched  as  he  was  by  the 
other  branches  of  the  government  and  amenable  to  the  -an- 
nual suffi'ages  of  the  freemen,  aflx)rded  a  very  strong  pre- 
sumption in  his  favor,  and  seemed  to  call  still  more  loudly 
for  a  public  hearing  of  the  evidence  that  might  be  within 


864  HISTORY   OF   CONNECTICUT. 

reach  of  the  corporation.  Waxing  warm  as  they  dwelt 
upon  the  contrast  between  such  men  as  Dudley  and  Corn- 
bury  on  the  one  hand,  and  Treat  and  Winthrop  on  the  other, 
these  gentlemen  boldly  urged,  that  in  the  case  of  a  provin- 
cial governor  who  held  during  the  pleasure  of  the  crown,  and 
who  was  liable  to  lose  nothing  but  his  office,  avarice  often 
tempted  the  incumbent  to  perpetrate  the  most  barbarous 
cruelties,  and  that  it  might  be  found  upon  investigation  of 
the  evidence,  that  Governor  Winthrop  was  better  fitted  to 
govern  Connecticut,  than  Cornbury  was  to  rule  in  New  York, 
or  Dudley  in  Massachusetts.  In  conclusion,  they  begged  that 
a  copy  of  the  complaint  might  be  sent  to  the  governor  and 
company  of  Connecticut,  that  they  might  prepare  themselves 
at  a  future  day  to  defend  the  corporation. 

So  reasonable  was  this  request  that  the  council  could  not 
fail  to  comply  with  it.  It  was  therefore  ordered  that  copies 
of  the  principal  charges  in  the  complaint  should  be  made  out 
and  sent,  one  to  the  governor  of  Connecticut,  and  one  to 
Dudley  and  Cornbury,  the  chief  complainants;  that  Connec- 
ticut should  make  her  answer  to  each  allegation,  and  estab- 
lish such  answer  if  she  could,  by  evidence  legally  taken 
and  duly  sealed  with  the  seal  of  the  colony.  Dudley  and 
Cornbury  were  in  like  manner  to  forward  their  proofs  in 
proper  legal  form. 

Nothing  could  have  been  more  unsatisfactory  to  Dudley 
and  Cornbury  than  this  just  decision.  They  saw  at  once 
that  their  schemes  were  ruined  and  their  intrigues  exposed. 
They  saw  the  castles  that  they  had  built  upon  the  crumbling 
foundations  of  calumny  and  lies,  already  beginning  to  topple 
down  upon  their  heads.  For  did  they  not  know  that  of  all 
the  accusations  so  pompously  paraded  in  their  complaint,  not 
one  of  them  could  stand  before  the  array  of  unimpeachable 
testimony  that  would  be  sent  out  against  it  by  the  outraged 
and  insulted  colony  ?  Poor  Dudley,  the  cunning  artificer  of 
this  fraud,  had  need  of  all  his  fortitude  to  sustain  him,  for 
the  General  Assembly  were  able  to  prove,  that  instead  of 


[1705.]     THE   CAUSE   OF   CONNECTICUT  TRIUMPHANT.  365 

neglecting  Massachusetts  and  New  York  in  their  day  of 
peril,  as  he  had  attempted  to  make  the  queen  believe,  and 
that  instead  of  leaving  the  inhabitants  of  those  provinces 
without  men  and  supplies,  Connecticut  had  during  that  year 
and  the  preceding  one,  kept  six  hundred  troops  in  constant 
requisition,  and  that  two-thirds  of  that  number  had  been  en- 
gaged in  actual  service  in  those  provinces.  She  could  prove, 
too,  that  while  her  people  had  scarcely  two  thousand  pounds 
of  money  in  circulation  in  the  whole  colony,  they  had  in 
three  years  expended  a  much  greater  sum  in  defending  New 
York  and  Massachusetts.  What  was  still  more  mortifying 
to  Dudley,  they  had  in  their  keeping  a  most  flattering  letter 
under  his  own  hand,  in  which  he  thanked  them  for  the  gen- 
erous aid  that  they  had  given  him,  and  for  their  services  dur- 
ing the  war.  To  corroborate  even  his  admissions  against 
himself,  they  had  also  on  file,  ready  to  be  produced,  letters 
of  commendation  and  thanks  from  the  officers  who  had  com- 
manded in  Massachusetts,  and  from  the  principal  gentlemen 
there,  all  speaking  the  language  of  gratitude  for  services 
rendered  by  Connecticut.  As  to  the  cowardly  charges  of 
disloyalty  to  th^  government,  contraband  trade,  harboring 
fugitives  from  justice  or  taxation,  and  that  more  infamous 
one  of  piracy,  who  knew  better  than  the  author  of  them,  how 
vain  would  be  the  attempt  to  prove  them,  and  with  what 
triumph  the  evidence  that  was  within  the  reach  of  the  colony 
could  sweep  them  away  ? 

No  wonder,  then,  that  he  gave  up  the  complaint  as  hope- 
less, and  set  himself,  as  I  have  already  detailed,  to  execute  a 
commission  in  regard  to  a  matter  that  was,  before  the  date 
of  the  instrument,  a  foregone  conclusion  in  his  own  mind ; 
nor  need  I  tell  the  reader,  that  when  the  proofs  adduced  by 
the  governor  and  company  arrived  in  England,  the  loyal- 
ty and  honor  of  Connecticut  shone  but  the  brighter 
when  placed  in  contrast  with  the  wickedness  of  her  accu- 
sers. 

I  need  not  say  that  Dudley  and  Cornbury  did  not  forward 
their  testimony,  nor  appear  to  prosecute  their  complaints; 


S66  HISTORY   OF  CONNECTICUT. 

nor  is  it  necessary  to  add,  that  in  due  time  a  letter  arrived 
from  Sir  Henry  Ashurst,  informing  the  people  that  it  was 
the  opinion  of  the  best  men  in  the  realm  that  they  alone,  sub- 
ject to  the  requisitions  of  the  crown,  had  a  right  to  com- 
mand the  militia  of  the  colony  and  dispose  of  its  money  un- 
der The  Charter. 


N^V^ 


Eng.  by-D.C.Hmman  ham  apendl  sltetch  by  Col.Tlvimbvill  in  flie  possession  ol'B.SiUimaii,  Jr. 


MAJo  (TnlGIsr,  ISMAIGIL  FlTTTMAMo 


^iir^^  /f^  u/?ia^?ny 


i!-lU;,u,,'„Ha,>l:o,'y  ot 


CHAPTER  XVII. 


DEATH  OF  TEEAT.   SUEEENDER  OF  POET  EOTAL. 

Early  in  the  year  1707,  the  colonies  were  again  alarmed 
with  rumors  of  another  French  and  Indian  invasion.  On 
the  6th  of  February,  a  council  of  war,  made  up  of  the  gov- 
ernor and  most  of  his  council  with  the  principal  military 
gentlemen  of  the  colony,  convened  at  Hartford.  Robert 
Treat,  then  deputy  governor,  too  infirm  by  reason  of  his 
great  age  to  be  pi'esent,  wrote  a  letter  and  sent  it  in  by  a 
messenger  to  aid  the  deliberations  of  the  council.  This  let- 
ter gave  intelligence  confirming  these  rumors.  Major  Schuy- 
ler sent  in  similar  communications.  It  was  thought  that  the 
Pootatuck  and  Owiantuck  tribes  had  been  consulted,  and 
were  ready  to  join  with  the  French.  As  these  Indians  were 
within  our  borders,  and  in  a  position  to  expose  our  western  fron- 
tiers to  great  hazard,  it  was  ordered  that  Simsbury,  Water- 
bury,  Woodbury,  and  Danbury,  should  speedily  be  fortified. 
As  Waterbury  had  not  yet  recovered  from  the  effects  of  the 
floods  alluded  to  on  a  former  page  of  this  work,  the  coun- 
cil promised  to  use  their  influence  with  the  General  Assem- 
bly to  get  the  country  rates  of  the  town  abated  by  way  of 
encouraging  the  inhabitants  to  place  their  houses  in  a  defen- 
sible condition.  Two  gentlemen  from  Woodbury,  Captain 
John  Minor,  and  Mr.  John  Sherman,  were  selected  to  remove 
the  Pootatuck  and  Owiantuck  Indians  from  the  places  then 
occupied  by  them,  to  Stratford  and  Fairfield,  where  they 
would  be  in  the  midst  of  a  vigilant  English  population 
and  could  be  more  easily  watched.  It  was  ordered,  further, 
that  some  of  the  chiefs  of  each  tribe  should  be  carried  down 
to  those  towns,  and  there  kept  as  hostages  for  the  good  be- 
havior of  their  people.     On  the  second  of  April,  a  special 


368  HISTORY   OF   CONNECTICUT. 

assembly  was  called  on  account  of  the  receipt  of  letters 
from  Governor  Dudley,  who  proposed  to  send  one  thousand  men 
against  Acadie,  and  requested  (he  could  not  command)  Con- 
necticut to  join  her  forces  with  those  of  Massachusetts  in 
the  expedition.  The  duplicity  of  Dudley  towards  the  colony 
was  by  no  means  forgotten,  and  the  recollection  of  it  aided 
the  Assembly,  I  have  no  doubt,  in  coming  to  a  conclusion  not 
to  respond  to  the  call.  It  was  argued  that  Connecticut  had 
not  been  consulted  as  to  the  propriety  of  taking  this  step, 
and  that  she  was  not  yet  sufficiently  recovered  from  the  bur- 
den of  defending  the  county  of  Hampshire,  to  be  able  to  as- 
sist in  an  enterprise  where  her  hand  and  not  her  counsels 
were  in  request. 

On  the  27th  of  November  1707,  while  in  the  discharge  of 
his  duties  as  governor  of  the  colony,  died  the  Hon.  Fitz 
John  Winthrop,  in  the  69th  year  of  his  age.  I  have  already 
given  a  history  of  his  public  life  in  my  account  of  the  ex- 
pedition against  Canada,  and  of  his  services  in  England  in 
1694,  as  the  agent  of  the  people  to  vindicate  the  right  of  the 
governor  to  command  the  militia.  He  was  as  zealous  in  de- 
fending that  strong  hold  of  popular  liberty  as  his  father,  John 
Winthrop,  had  been  in  establishing  it.  Though  maligned  by 
some  of  the  worst  enemies  that  have  ever  beset  a  good  man, 
he  lived  to  see  them,  like  Leisler  and  Milborn,  suffer  the 
penalties  awarded  to  traitors,  or  like  Dudley  and  Cornbury, 
baffled  in  the  cross-currents  of  politics.  He  still  keeps  an 
honorable  place  in  the  gallery  of  our  colonial  governors,  as  a 
gentleman  of  great  fidelity  in  all  his  public  relations,  and  of 
unblemished  private  life. 

To  fill  the  vacancy  occasioned  by  his  death,  Deputy  Gov- 
ernor Treat,  convoked  a  special  assembly  on  the  17th  of 
December,  at  New  Haven.  It  was  ordered  that  the  votes 
of  both  houses  should  be  mixed  and  then  sorted  and  counted, 
and  that  the  candidate  who  received  a  majority  of  votes, 
should  be  declared  governor.  The  ballot  resulted  in  the 
election  of  the  Rev.  Gurdon  Saltonstall,  who  then  had  charge 
of  the  churcii    at    New  London.     On    the    1st  of  January 


GOVERNOR  TREAT.  869 

1708,  he  signified  his  acceptance  of  the  place  and  took  the 
oath  of  office.  Tlie  regular  election  that  took  place  on  the 
13th  of  the  following  May,  confirmed  the  choice.  At  the  same 
time,  as  the  deputy  governor,  then  eighty-six  years  old,  had 
made  known  his  desire  to  withdraw  from  the  cares  of  public 
life,  it  was  thought  best  to  excuse  him  from  further  service. 
Nathan  Gold  was  elected  to  fill  his  place. 

As  the  infirmities  of  age  soon  confined  Governor  Treat  to 
the  narrow  circle  of  his  own  neighborhood  until  his  death, 
that  took  place  about  two  years  after  his  resignation,  I  have 
thought  this  a  proper  occasion  to  give  a  slight  sketch  of  his 
life  and  character. 

Robert  Treat,  the  third  governor  under  the  charter,  and 
son  of  Richard  Treat,  one  of  the  patentees  named  in  it,  was 
born  in  England,  in  the  year  1622.  At  an  early  age  he  ac- 
companied his  father  to  America.  Richard  Treat — (always 
designated  in  our  early  colonial  records,  by  the  title  of 
Mr.  or  Master,)  was  a  gentleman  of  high  character,  and 
was  among  the  first  planters  of  Wethersfield.  He  held 
several  important  places  of  trust  in  the  colony.  Robert, 
from  what  cause  it  does  not  appear,*  did  not  long  remain 
with  his  father,  but  left  Connecticut  for  Milford,  during  the  in- 
fancy of  that  settlement,  while  yet  it  was  a  republic  independ- 
ent of  New  Haven.  At  the  first  meeting  of  the  planters 
of  Milford,  and  when  Treat  was  only  eighteen  years  old, 
he  was  chosen  to  aid  in  surveying  and  laying  out  the  lands 
of  the  new  plantation.  Soon  afterwards  he  was  appointed 
one  of  the  five  judges  that  constituted  the  "particular  court" 
of  the  Commonwealth.  After  Milford  was  joined  with  New 
Haven  in  1644,  he  soon  became  known  in  the  colony  as  a 
gentleman  of  good  culture  and  marked  abilities.  In  1661, 
he  was  elected  a  magistrate  and  remained  in  the  magistracy 

*  It  is  probable  that  Mr.  Prudden,  who  preached  in  Wethersfield  during  a  part 
of  the  year  1639,  and  had  proved  very  acceptable  to  a  part  of  the  people  there, 
may  have  induced  Mr.  Treat  to  remove  to  Blilford,  as  he  did  some  other  planters. 
Certain  it  is  that  Treat  was  in  Milford  as  early  as  1639,  as  appears  by  the  IVIilford 
records. 

24 


870  HISTORY   OF  CONNECTICUT. 

until  1664,  when  he  declined  any  longer  to  hold  office  under 
a  government  that  he  felt  to  be  already  tottering  to  its  fall, 
crushed  by  the  weight  of  debts  and  taxes,  and  hemmed  in  by 
a  troop  of  adverse  circumstances  that,  like  a  beleaguering 
army,  cut  off  at  once  all  supplies  and  all  hope.  It  was  main- 
ly through  his  influence  that  Milford  left  the  jurisdiction  of 
New  Haven,  and  placed  herself  in  the  keeping  of  Connecti- 
cut. He  was  the  only  man  then  living  in  the  colony  of 
New  Haven,  who  had  at  the  same  time  the  moral  courage 
and  the  resolute  will  successfully  to  meet  the  unabated  oppo- 
sition of  Davenport  to  the  union,  that  could  hardly  have  been 
effected  as  it  was,  had  he  failed  to  unite  his  fearless  counsels 
with  the  persuasive  admonitions  of  Winthrop. 

In  1670,  he  was  appointed  major  of  the  Connecticut  troops, 
and  in  1675,  he  was  raised  to  the  rank  of  colonel.  His  gallantry 
and  bravery — evinced  throughout  the  whole  course  of  Philips' 
war,  from  its  first  stages,  in  which  he  was  again  and  again 
chiefly  instrumental  in  saving  from  total  destruction  some  of 
the  finest  border  towns  in  Massachusetts,  down  to  the  fatal 
hour  when,  with  the  Connecticut  troops,  he  passed  from  the 
rear  to  the  van  of  Winslow's  army,  and  led  the  forlorn  hope 
across  the  bridge  and  in  front  of  the  block-house  whence  the 
murderous  fire  of  Philip's  sharp-shooters  had  more  than  once 
driven  the  forces  of  Massachusetts — are  without  a  parallel 
in  our  history,  save  in  the  life  of  Mason  who  preceded  him, 
or  Putnam  who  came  after  him.  In  1676,  he  was  elected 
deputy  governor,  and  in  1 683,  governor  of  the  colony.  He  filled 
the  executive  office  for  fifteen  years,  when  he  declined  any 
longer  to  act  in  that  capacity,  and  Gen.  Fitz  John  Winthrop 
was  chosen  to  supply  his  place.  There  existed  between 
Treat  and  John  Winthrop  the  most  cordial  friendship,  grow- 
ing out  of  the  admiration  that  each  felt  for  the  character  and 
abilities  of  the  other,  and  also  on  account  of  the  part  that 
they  respectively  took,  the  one  in  procuring  the  charter,  the 
other  in  vindicating  its  jurisdiction  and  in  preserving  it  from 
the  violence  of  its  enemies. 

Winthrop  died  before  the  clouds  that  had  begun  to  gather 


GOVEENOR  TREAT.  371 

in  his  day  had  darkened  into  the  storm ;  Treat  lived  to  with- 
stand the  fiercest  bolts  of  delegated  power. 

Governor  Treat  was  not  only  a  man  of  high  courage,  but 
he  was  one  of  the  most  cautious  military  leaders,  and  possess- 
ed a  quick  sagacity  united  with  a  breadth  of  understanding 
that  enabled  him  to  see  at  a  glance  the  most  complex  rela- 
tions that  surrounded  the  field  of  battle.  Nor  did  he  excel 
only  as  a  hero :  his  moral  courage  and  his  inherent  force  of 
character  shone  with  the  brightest  lustre  in  the  executive 
chair  or  legislative  chamber,  when  stimulated  by  the  opposi- 
tion and  malevolence  of  such  men  as  Andross.  In  private 
life  he  was  no  less  esteemed.  He  was  a  planter  of  that 
hospitable  order  that  adorned  New  England  in  an  age  when 
hospitality  w^as  accounted  a  virtue,  and  when  the  term  gen- 
tlemen was  something  more  than  an  empty  title.  His  house 
was  always  open  to  the  poor  and  friendless,  and  wherever 
he  gave  his  hand  he  gave  his  heart.  Hence,  whether  march- 
ing to  the  relief  of  Springfield,  or  extending  his  charities  to 
Whalley  and  GofFe,  while  he  drowned  a  tear  of  sympathy  in 
the  lively  sparkle  of  fun  and  of  anecdote,  he  was  always 
welcome,  always  beloved.  His  quick  sensibilities,  his  playful 
humor,  his  political  wisdom,  his  firmness  in  the  midst  of  dan- 
gers, and  his  deep  piety,  have  still  a  traditionary  fame  in  the 
neighborhood  where  he  spent  the  brief  portion  of  his  time 
that  he  was  allowed  to  devote  to  the  culture  of  the  domestic 
and  social  virtues.  He  died  at  Milford,  in  the  89th  year  of 
his  age.* 

*  Governor  Treat,  was  a  son  of  Richard  Treat,  Esq.,  of  Wethersfield,  who  was 
one  of  the  patentees  of  Connecticut.  The  governor  married  Jane,  daughter  of 
Edmund  Tapp,  Esq.,  of  Milford,  who  died  April  8,  1703.  He  then  married  the 
widow  Elizabeth  Bryan,  who  died  in  about  three  months  after  their  union.  The 
children  of  Governor  Treat,  were  1,  Samuel,  who  graduated  at  Harvard  College, 
1669,  was  settled  in  the  ministry  at  Eastham,  Mass.,  and  died  in  1717,  leaving  a 
numerous  family;  2,  John,  who  died  j'oung;  3,  Robert,  who  settled  in  Milford, 
and  was  a  magistrate ;  4,  Joseph,  also  of  Milford,  who  became  a  justice  of  the 
quorum  ;  5,  Mary,  who  married  Rev.  Samuel  Mather,  minister  at  Windsor  ;  6, 
Abigail,  who  married  Rev.  Mr.  Andrew,  of  Milford ;  and  Anne,  who  was  the 
mother  of  the  Hon.  Robert  Treat  Paine,  one  of  the  Signers  of  the  Declaration  of 
Independence  from  Massachusetts.     Lambert ;  Rev.  Dr.  Chapin,  &c. 


872  HISTOKY   OF   CONNECTICUT. 

His  eventful  life,  that  began  in  the  early  part  of  one  cen- 
tury, and  ended  in  the  first  quarter  of  another,  was  mild  and 
tranquil  at  its  close,  beaming  smilingly  upon  the  world  as  a 
summer  sunset  lingers  upon  the  horizon  to  light  up  with  its 
warm  blending  of  colors  the  vapors  that  herald  the  coming 
of  darkness. 

The  refusal  of  Connecticut  to  furnish  her  quota  of  troops 
in  answer  to  the  call  of  Governor  Dudley,  delayed  the  con- 
templated expedition  against  Canada,  but  did  not  defeat  it. 
At  the  May  session  of  the  General  Assembly,  1709,  a  letter 
from  the  queen  was  presented  and  read,  advising  the  colony 
of  the  plan  of  the  campaign.  It  was  resolved  to  reduce  the 
French  in  Canada,  Acadie,  and  Newfoundland.  The  con- 
tents of  letters  from  the  Earl  of  Sunderland,  were  also  made 
known  to  the  legislature,  in  which  the  number  of  troops  and 
the  amount  of  supplies  to  be  provided  by  each  of  the  colonies 
were  specified.  Connecticut  was  ordered  to  raise  350  men, 
and  the  other  colonies  lying  east  of  Connecticut,  were  to  pro- 
vide an  aggregate  of  1,200  men,  with  transports,  pilots,  and 
provisions,  for  three  months'  service.  The  earl  acquainted 
the  colonies  with  her  majesty's  design  to  send  a  squadron  of 
ships  to  Boston  by  the  middle  of  May.  This  armament  was 
expected  to  resume  the  old  attempt  upon  Quebec.  But 
this  was  not  the  full  burden  that  was  to  be  placed  on  the 
shoulders  of  the  colony. 

It  was  further  proposed  that  Connecticut,  New  York,  and 
New  Jersey,  and  the  southern  colonies  should  raise  1,500 
men  to  cross  the  country  and  take  possession  of  Montreal. 
With  her  usual  alacrity,  Connecticut  raised  her  share  of  the 
troops  for  the  land  army,  and  placed  them  under  the  com- 
mand of  Colonel  Whiting.  The  Assembly,  by  a  formal  vote, 
also  thanked  the  queen  for  her  kind  care  of  the  colonies,  in 
taking  such  active  measures  to  remove  a  dangerous  enemy. 
As  early  as  the  20th  of  May,  the  provincial  armament  was 
ready  to  sail  for  Quebec.  Francis  Nicholson  was  placed  at 
the  head  of  the  land  army.  He  was  directed  to  march  as 
far  as  Wood  Creek,  and  there  await  the  coming  of  the  fleet 


[1709.]  FIRST  BILLS   OF   CREDIT.  373 

that  was  expected  at  Boston,  when  he  was  to  press  forward 
and  reach  Montreal,  so  that  the  attack  upon  that  place  nnight 
be  made  simultaneously  with  that  upon  Quebec.  Not  only 
did  the  colonies  raise  their  respective  quotas  of  men,  but 
such  was  the  zeal  of  the  inhabitants  to  engage  in  the  war,  that 
many  volunteer  companies  were  raised  and  sent  on  to  join  the 
regular  troops,  and  more  than  one  hundred  batteaux  and 
as  many  birch  canoes  were  constructed  to  transport  the  army 
across  the  lake.  Three  forts,  several  block-houses  and  store- 
houses, were  built  for  the  protection  of  the  army  and  of  the 
frontier.  All  these  preparations  only  resulted  in  a  useless 
expense  to  the  colonies.  The  fleet,  so  long  and  anxiously 
waited  for,  did  not  come  from  England,  and  in  the  fall,  after 
disease  had  thinned  the  ranks  of  his  army  and  threatened 
utterly  to  depopulate  his  camp,  Nicholson  marched  back 
to  Albany.  One  quarter  of  those  who  had  been  placed  un- 
der his  command  were  dead.  Connecticut  alone  lost  ninety 
men.  The  colony  was  so  straightened  for  means  by  this 
bootless  enterprise  that  the  Assembly  was  compelled  to  issue 
Bills  of  Credit*  to  the  amount  of  eight  thousand  pounds. 
This  was  the  first  time  that  Connecticut  ever  resorted  to  an 
issue  of  paper  money,  though  she  has  since  done  it  more  than 
once,  not  merely  for  her  own  protection,  but  for  the  salva- 
tion of  the  Union,  for  which  she  afterwards  fought  with  such 
valor.     Although  the  colonies  were  deeply  disappointed  at 

*  It  may  interest  the  reader  to  know  the  fonn  of  these  Bills  of  Credit,  and  1 
subjoin  an  exact  copy  of  one,  taken  from  the  Colonial  Records  : 

"No.  (  )  20s. 

"  This  Indented  Bill  of  Twenty  Shillings  due  from  the  colony  of  Connecticut, 
in  New  England,  to  the  possessor  thereof,  shall  be  in  value  equal  to  money,  and 
shall  be  accordingly  accepted  by  the  Treasurer,  and  Receivers  subordinate  to  him, 
in  all  public  payments,  and  for  any  stock  at  any  time  in  the  Treasury. 

"Hartford,  July  the  Twelfth,  A.D.,  1709. 
"  By  order  of  the  General  Court." 

In  connection  with  this  provision,  it  was  enacted,  that  these  bills  should  be  is- 
sued from  the  treasury  as  money,  but  should  be  received  in  payments  at  one  shil- 
ling on  the  pound  better  than  money.  One  half  only  were  to  be  signed  and  issued 
at  first,  and  the  other  half  were  to  remain  unsigned,  until  it  should  be  found 
necessary  to  put  them  in  circulation. 


874  HISTORY   OF   CONNECTICUT. 

the  failure  of  a  scheme  that  had  thrown  upon  them  such 
heavy  burdens,  yet  thek  situation  was  too  critical  to  allow 
them  time  to  brood  over  the  past.  The  French  still  retained 
their  old  Indian  alliances,  and  were  making  all  the  efforts 
that  they  could  to  alienate  from  the  English  the  waning 
affections  of  the  five  nations.  Could  the  enemy  but  bring 
about  this  result  they  well  knew  that  the  whole  English  fron- 
tier would  be  in  their  power,  and  the  settlements  along  its 
entire  line  would  be  again  exposed  to  the  sickening  atroci- 
ties of  an  Indian  border  war.  These  the  colonies  had  al- 
ready experienced,  and  the  recollection  was  enough  to  stimu- 
late them  to  the  most  vigorous  exertions. 

That  they  might  hit  upon  some  uniform  plan  of  operation, 
a  congress  of  governors  was  held  at  Rehoboth,  Massachu- 
setts, in  the  beginning  of  October,  to  deliberate  upon  the  con- 
dition of  the  country  and  advise  what  should  be  done. 
General  Nicholson,  Colonel  Vetch,  and  other  experienced 
military  gentlemen,  were  invited  to  attend  upon  the  Con- 
gress, and  give  it  the  benefit  of  their  advice.  The  result 
of  their  deliberations  was  an  address  to  the  queen,  setting 
forth  the  harmonious  relations  that  subsisted  between  the 
colonies,  the  loyalty  that  prevailed  among  the  people,  and 
the  necessity  of  adding  the  French  colonies  in  North 
America  to  the  other  dominions  of  her  empire.  The  address 
ended  with  a  petition  that  her  majesty  would  send  out  an  ar- 
mament which,  with  the  provincial  troops,  would  be  equal  to 
such  an  enterprise. 

At  the  session  of  the  General  Assembly  in  October,  Gov- 
ernor Saltonstall  made  known  the  doings  of  the  executive 
convention  and  caused  the  address  to  be  read.  The 
legislature  approved  of  its  terms  and  adopted  a  similar 
one  in  behalf  of  Connecticut.  Governor  Saltonstall  was 
appointed  agent  for  the  colony  to  present  it  to  the  queen.* 

In  1708,  twenty-five  inhabitants  of  Norwalk  united  in 
purchasing  of  Catoonah,  the  chief  sachem,  and  other  Indians, 
a  large  tract  of  land  lying  between  that  town  and  Danbury. 
*  Colonial  Records,  MS. 


[1710.]  QUEEN   ANNE   AND   THE   FIVE   SACHEMS.  375 

The  deed  is  dated  on  the  30th  of  September  of  that  year, 
and  at  the  ensuing  session  of  the  General  Assembly,  it  was 
incorporated  as  a  town  by  the  name  of  Ridgefield.  John 
Belden,  Samuel  Keeler,  Matthew  Seymour,  and  Matthias 
St.  John,  were  among  the  chief  proprietors  and  settlers. 

That  the  queen  might  be  more  easily  induced  to  send  the 
aid  that  was  so  much  sought  for,  Colonel  Schuyler,  one  of 
the  most  wealthy  gentlemen  in  the  province  of  New  York, 
whose  whole  heart  was  in  the  project,  resolved  to  approach 
her  m.ajesty's  confidence  by  exciting  her  curiosity  and  play- 
ing upon  her  imagination.  At  his  own  expense,  therefore, 
he  fitted  out  a  vessel,  and,  with  five  Indian  sachems  in  his 
charge,  representing  the  five  nations  who  had  withstood  the 
tempting  offers  of  the  French,  he  sailed  for  England.*  He 
carried  also  an  address  from  the  Assembly  of  New  York, 
begging  for  the  interposition  of  the  crown. 

The  queen  readily  granted  an  interview  to  Colonel  Schuy- 
ler, and  the  swarthy  deputation  that  had  accompanied  him, 
and  the  chiefs  were  received  with  such  ceremonials  as 
suited  the  rank  of  the  respective  parties.  These  children 
of  the  forest,  erect  and  unabashed  in  the  presence  of  royal- 
ty, made  a  very  favorable  impression  upon  the  mind  of  the 
queen.  In  their  simple,  wild  way,  they  gave  her  a  history 
of  the  part  that  they  had  taken  in  the  struggles  with  the 
French,  and  what  faithful  allies  they  had  proved  to  her  chil- 
dren across  the  water ;  with  what  readiness  they  had  sub- 
mitted to  the  loss  of  their  best  warriors,  and  with  what  de- 
light they  had  received  the  intelligence  that  so  great  a  sove- 
reign as  she  was,  was  about  to  send  ships  and  men  to  subdue 
the  common  enemy.  They  said  that  as  one  man  they  had 
hung  up  the  kettle  and  taken  up  the  hatchet  in  aid  of  Nichol- 
son ;  but  when  they  found  that  their  great  queen,  on  account 
of  some  weighty  matters  at  home,  had  kept  back  her  ships, 
their  hearts  were  heavy,  lest  the  enemy,  who  had  before 
feared  them,  should  now  think  that  they  were  too  weak 
to  make  war  upon  them.  They  said  that  the  reduc- 
*  Bancroft,  Trumbull,  Brodhead. 


876  HISTORY  OF  CONKECTICUT. 

tion  of  Canada  was  very  necessary  to  them,  as  they  could 
not  occupy  their  hunting-grounds  with  any  security  as  things 
then  were ;  and  intimated  that,  should  the  queen  be  unmind- 
ful of  them,  they  must  either  quit  their  country  and  seek 
other  places  of  abode,  or  remain  neutral — neither  of  which 
alternatives  would  accord  with  their  inclinations.* 

This  deputation,  with  the  several  addresses  before  alluded 
to,  met  with  a  gracious  reception,  and  the  applicants  were 
led  to  hope  that  an  armament  would  at  once  be  sent  to  re- 
duce Canada. 

In  July  1710,  advices  arrived  in  New  England,  that  a  fleet 
under  the  charge  of  Lord  Shannon,  was  soon  to  set  sail ; 
and  in  anticipation  of  it,  Nicholson,  with  several  armed 
ships  and  some  transports,  left  England  in  the  spring  for  the 
American  coast. 

These  preparations,  however,  proved  not  to  be  designed 
for  the  reduction  of  Canada,  but  only  to  get  possession  of 
Port  Royal  and  Nova  Scotia. 

On  the  14th  of  August,  a  special  assembly  was  convened 
on  account  of  a  letter  addressed  by  the  queen  to  the  colony, 
calling  for  troops  and  supplies.  In  debt  as  she  was,  and  suf- 
fering as  her  people  still  were  from  the  heavy  loss  of  life  that 
befell  the  army  at  Wood  Creek,  Connecticut  voted  to  raise 
three  hundred  men  in  obedience  to  the  requisition.  No  time 
was  lost  in  procuring  vessels  and  sailors  for  the  expedition, 
and  in  four  weeks  our  quota  of  troops  were  safely  transport- 
ed to  Boston. 

By  the  18th  of  September,  the  provincial  fleet  was  ready 
to  sail.  It  consisted  of  thirty-six  ships  of  war  and  trans- 
ports, under  command  of  General  Nicholson.  On  the  24th, 
the  armament  reached  Port  Royal,  and  landed  without  oppo- 
sition. On  the  21st  of  October,  three  small  batteries  of  two 
mortars,  and  twenty-four  cohorns,were  brought  to  bear  upon 

♦Smith's  Hist.  New  York,  i.  121,  123;  Holmes,  i.  501,  502.  Trumbull,  i. 
437.  These  Indian  sachems  attracted  great  attention  in  England.  Sir  Charles 
Cotterel  conducted  them,  in  two  coaches,  to  St.  James's  ;  and  the  Lord  Chamber- 
lain introduced  them  into  the  royal  presence. 


[1711.]  CONNECTICltT  THANKS  THE   QUEEN.  377 

the  fort,  assisted  by  a  bomb  ship  named  the  Star  that  proved 
very  effective.  The  next  day,  the  commander  of  the  fort 
capitulated.  Thus,  unaided  by  the  English  fleet,  Port  Royal 
fell  into  the  hands  of  the  provincials  with  the  loss  of  only 
about  forty  men,  twenty-six  of  whom  were  drowned  by  the 
wreck  of  one  of  the  transports  in  the  service  of  Connecticut. 

Flushed  with  the  anticipation  of  new  conquests,  Nichol- 
son sailed  for  England  in  the  fall,  to  renew  his  solicitations 
for  a  fleet  to  prosecute  the  war.  In  June  1711,  he  again  ar- 
rived in  Boston  with  new  requisitions  from  the  queen,  com- 
manding the  several  colonies  to  raise  fresh  troops,  and  with 
the  assurance  that  an  English  fleet  was  about  to  sail  for 
America. 

A  convention  of  governors  was  convoked  at  New  Lon- 
don, on  account  of  this  intelligence.  Sixteen  days  after  the 
arrival  of  Nicholson,  the  expected  fleet  made  its  appearance  ; 
but  strange  to  say,  it  was  almost  totally  destitute  of  provis- 
ions. This  fact  added  to  the  suspicions  before  entertained 
by  the  colonies,  that  the  object  of  the  English  government 
was  not  the  reduction  of  Canada.  It  appeared  doubtful 
whether  the  requisite  supplies  could  be  procured  in  the  short 
space  of  time  that  would  be  allowed  for  that  purpose.  On 
the  other  hand,  should  the  preparations  come  short  of  the 
demand,  and  the  expedition  prove  unsuccessful,  it  was 
thought  that  the  whole  blame  of  the  failure  would  fall  upon 
New  England.  The  colonies,  therefore,  put  forth  the  ut- 
most exertions  to  provide  for  the  armament. 

The  General  Assembly  of  Connecticut  was  in  session 
when  the  fleet  arrived  at  Boston,  and  speedily  voted  to  raise 
three  hundred  and  sixty  men,  to  procure  four  months  pro- 
visions for  them,  and  a  vessel  to  transport  them  to  Albany. 
At  the  same  time  a  letter  was  addressed  to  the  queen, 
proffering  the  thanks  of  the  colony  for  her  tender  care  of  its 
interests,  and  expressing  a  great  deal  of  gratitude  for  all 
that  her  majesty  had  done,  and,  so  far  as  can  now  be  seen, 
for  much  that  she  had  neglected  to  do.* 
*  Colonial  Records,  MS. 


878  HISTORY   OP   COKXECTICUT. 

With  such  alacrity  did  the  colonies  address  themselves  to 
the  preparation  of  this  two-fold  enterprise,  that  in  about  a 
month  the  land  army  and  the  fleet  were  both  in  readiness. 
On  the  30th  of  July,  the  armament,  consisting  of  fifteen 
men-of-war,  forty  transports,  six  store-ships,  and  a  train  of 
artillery,  such  as  had  never  before  been  sent  to  the  American 
coast,  sailed  out  of  Boston  harbor  for  Canada.  Aside  from 
the  naval  forces,  it  carried  a  land  army  of  seven  thousand 
men,  made  up  of  five  regiments  from  England  and  Flanders, 
and  two  regiments  from  Massachusetts,  Rhode  Island,  and 
New  Hampshire.  Sir  Hovenden  Walker  was  admiral  of 
the  fleet,  while  the  land  forces  were  under  command  of 
Brigadier  General  Hill,  brother  to  Mrs.  Masham,  the  favor- 
ite of  the  queen.  On  the  same  day.  General  Nicholson  be- 
gan his  march  for  Albaiiy.  His  army  consisted  of  four 
thousand  men  from  Connecticut,  New  York,  and  New  Jer- 
sey. Colonel  William  Whiting,  had  the  immediate  com- 
mand of  the  Connecticut  forces  ;*  Colonel  Schuyler  those 
of  New  York,  and  Colonel  Ingoldsby,  those  of  New  Jersey. 

Admiral  Walker  reached  the  mouth  of  the  St.  Lawrence 
with  his  fleet  on  the  14th  of  August.  That  he  might  wait 
for  transports  to  come  up,  he  put  into  the  Bay  of  Gaspe  on 
the  18th,  where  he  lay  at  anchor  until  the  20th,  when  he 
sailed  out  of  the  bay.  On  the  22d,  a  dismal  prospect  pre- 
sented itself.  With  a  high  south-easterly  wind  to  contend 
against,  without  soundings,  out  of  sight  of  land,  and  en- 
veloped in  a  thick  fog,  the  fleet  appeared  to  be  at  the  mercy 
of  the  elements.  With  the  hope  that  the  wind  would  drift 
them  into  the  channel,  the  pilots  advised  that  the  ships 
should  be  brought  to,  with  their  heads  to  the  southward. 
Even  after  this  precaution  was  taken,  the  ships  still  drifted 
toward  the  dangerous  rocks  of  the  north  shore. 

Just  as  the  admiral  was  going  to  retire  for  the  night,  the 
captain  of  his  ship  went  below  and  told  him  in  alarm  that  he 
could  see  land.  As  if  not  satisfied  with  the  speed  that  was 
already  hurrying  the  fleet  to  perdition.  Walker  gave  orders 

*  Colonial  Records,  RIS. 


[1711.]  OBSTINACY   OF   WALKEE.  379 

that  the  heads  of  the  ships  should  be  brought  to  the  north. 
Captain  Goddard,  of  the  land  army,  flew  to  the  cabin  and 
begged  the  admiral  to  go  on  deck  and  see  for  himsef  Walk- 
er only  laughed.  As  the  ships  drew  nearer  the  gulf  that 
yawned  for  them,  Goddard  again  sought  the  cabin. 

"For  the  Lord's  sake,"  cried  he,  "come  on  deck,  or  we 
shall  certainly  be  drowned.     I  see  breakers  all  around  us !" 

Walker,  with  as  much  leisure  as  if  he  had  been  preparing 
to  write  one  of  his  own  stupid  dispatches,  put  on  his  gown 
and  slippers,  "  and  coming  upon  deck,"  to  use  his  own  lan- 
guage, "I  found  what  he  told  me  was  true!" 

He  might  easily  find  out  the  truth  of  it  by  the  light  of  the 
moon  that  just  then  pierced  through  the  mists  and  showed 
the  Egg  Islands  to  the  leeward,  with  the  white  waves  break- 
mg  over  them. 

The  admiral  then,  for  the  first  time,  opened  his  eyes  and 
consented  that  the  advice  of  the  pilots  should  be  followed. 

Eight  of  the  British  transports  were  cast  away,  and  of  the 
seventeen  hundred  English  officers  and  soldiers  that  were  on 
board  of  them,  eight  hundred  and  eighty-four  were  lost.  Ad- 
miral Walker,  and  the  other  principal  officers,  were  saved, 
by  trusting  to  their  anchors,  from  being  dashed  against  the 
rocks.* 

As  soon  as  the  fleet  could  be  extricated  it  sailed  for  Span- 
ish river  bay,  but  as  the  wind  had  shifted  and  blew  stifly 
from  the  east,  it  was  eight  days  before  the  entire  armament 
arrived  there.  Here  a  council  of  war  was  held,  the  result  of 
which  was,  that  the  admiral  soon  after  weighed  anchor  for 
Portsmouth,  England.  Of  course.  General  Nicholson  had 
nothing  to  do  but  to  retrace  his  steps. f 

The  failure  of  this  third  attempt  to  subdue  the  Canadas 
was  of  course  charged  upon  the  American  pilots,  who  after- 
wards made  oath  that  their  advice  was  not  followed,  and, 
with  equal  propriety,  upon  the  tardiness  of  the  colonies,  who 

*  See  Hutchinson,  ii.  180  ;  also,  Bancroft  and  Trumbull, 
t  Smith's  New  York,  ii.  128,  130  ;  Belknap's  New  Hampshire,  i.  335  ;  Trum- 
bull, i.  441,  442  i  Hutchinson,  ii.  190,  198 ;  Holmes,  i,  505. 


380  HISTORY   OF  CONNECTICUT. 

in  five  weeks  had  raised  and  provisioned  two  armies  of  their 
own,  besides  providing  supphes  for  the  Enghsh  fleet.  Al- 
though the  loss  of  life  had  fallen  chiefly  upon  the  English 
soldiers,  the  colonies  still  reflected  with  chagrin  that  the 
French  flag  yet  floated  from  the  heights  of  Quebec. 

During  the  period  covered  by  this  chapter,  several  new 
townships  were  settled  and  organized,  in  addition  to  those 
already  noted. 

At  the  May  session  of  the  General  Assembly,  1707, 
Hebron  was  incorporated.  The  settlement  of  this  place  was 
begun  about  three  years  previous  to  the  above  date.  The 
first  settlers  of  the  town  were  William  Shipman,  Timothy 
Phelps,  Caleb  Jones,  Samuel  Filer,  Stephen  Post,  Jacob 
Root,  Samuel  Curtis,  Edward  Sawyer,  Joseph  Youngs,  and 
Benoni  Trumbull.  The}''  were  from  Windsor,  Saybrook, 
Long  Island,  and  Northampton.* 

In  May  of  the  following  year,  it  was  ordered  that  a  town- 
ship should  be  laid  out  south-east  of  Woodstock,  eight  miles 
in  length  and  six  in  breadth.  The  inhabitants  on  this  tract 
were  vested  with  town  privileges,  and  the  town  was  named 
KiUingly.  Among  the  early  settlers  whose  descendants  still 
inhabit  the  vicinity,  were  Messrs.  Joseph  Cady,  James  Dan- 
ielson,  Sampson  Howe,  and  Ephraim  Warren. 

Newtown,  in  the  present  county  of  Fairfield,  was  incor- 
porated at  the  October  session,  1711. 

A  tract  of  country  formerly  granted  by  Joshua,  sachem  of 
the  Mohegans,  lying  north  of  Lebanon  and  west  of  Mans- 
field, was  laid  out  about  this  time,  and  the  town  was  incorpora- 
ted by  the  name  of  Coventry  at  the  October  session,  1711. 

A  settlement  was  commenced  in  1707,  at  a  place  called 
Weatinoge,  on  the  Housatonick  river.  The  Boardmans, 
Bostwicks,  Gaylords,  Nobles,  Canllejds,  Camps,  Hines,  Bucks, 
Warners,  &c.,  were  among  the  early  famihes  who  still  retain 

*  Hebron  is  noted  as  the  birth-place  of  many  eminent  men,  among  whom  I 
may  name,  Dr.  Benjamin  Trumbull,  the  venerable  Historian  of  Connecticut, 
Governor  Peters,  of  this  State,  Governor  Palmer,  of  Vermont,  and  Lieut.  Gov- 
ernor Root,  of  New  York. 


[1713.]  POMFEET   INCOEPOEATED.  881 

an  honorable  position  in  the  place.  The  town  was  incor- 
porated and  named  New  Milford,  in  October  1712.  The 
famous  Moravian  missionary,  Count  Zinzendorf,  estabhshed 
a  mission  among  the  Indians  at  this  point. 

Pomfret,  was  incorporated  in  1713.  Some  of  the  lands 
here  had  been  settled  upon  as  early  as  1686.  Among  the 
early  proprietors  were  Major  James  Fitch,  Lieutenant  Wil- 
liam Ruggles,  Messrs.  John  Gore,  John  Pierpont,  Benjamin 
Sabin,  John  Grosvenor,  Nathan  Wilson,  Samuel  Craft, 
Samuel  and  John  Ruggles,  and  Joseph  Griffin.  Major 
General  Israel  Putnam,  of  the  revolutionary  army  was  a  re- 
sident of  this  town.* 

*  For  a  more  particular  account  of  the  above  towns — and  indeed  of  all  the 
towns  in  the  State,  I  take  pleasure  in  referring  the  reader  to  Barber's  "  Historical 
Collections  of  Connecticut." 


CHAPTER  XVIII. 

WAR  WITH   THE  EASTERN  INDIANS. 

Although  the  Treaty  of  Utrecht,  bearing  date  April  1st, 
1713,*  had  restored  peace  to  the  European  powers,  yet  it  did 
not  entirely  put  an  end  to  the  troubles  existing  in  America. 
The  French  Jesuits,  who  had  extended  their  influence  into 
the  region  lying  to  the  eastward  of  New  England,  lost  no 
opportunity  to  intensify  the  prejudices  and  hatred  of  the  In- 
dian tribes  who  were  under  their  control.  On  the  other 
hand,  the  encroaching  spirit  of  the  English  colonies,  impel- 
ling their  people  to  make  new  acquisitions  of  territory  by 
means  that  could  not  always  be  justified,  helped  to  quicken 
the  embers  of  discontent  into  a  flame. 

Sebastian  Ralle,  the  spiritual  father  of  the  Indians  at  Nor- 
ridgewock,  and  who  had  established  a  large  Indian  church 
there,  was  accused  by  the  English  who  lived  on  the  frontiers 
with  fermenting  disturbances  among  the  natives,  and  es- 
pecially in  relation  to  that  most  delicate  matter,  the  tenure  of 
their  lands.  Soon  after  Governor  Shute  entered  upon  his 
duties  as  governor  of  Massachusetts,  he  was  induced,  from 
the  complaints  that  he  heard  from  the  eastern  border  settle- 
ments, to  try  what  could  be  effected  with  the  Indians  there 
by  treaty.  With  this  view,  he  met  the  chiefs  by  appointment 
at  Arrowsick  Island,  and  after  some  delays  succeeded  in  re- 
newing the  treaty  of  1713.t 

This  settlement  of  their  hostilities  does  not  seem  to  have 
been  acceptable  to  Father  Ralle,  who  was  supposed  to  have 
done  what  he  could  to  render  it  inoperative,  and  to  incite  the 


*  By  this  treaty  between  Great  Britain  and  France,  the  latter  surrendered  to 
the  British  government,  the  Bay  and  Straits  of  Hudson,  the  island  of  St.  Chris- 
topher, Nova  Scotia,  and  Newfoundland. 

t  A  printed  copy  of  this  treaty  is  in  the  Library  of  the  Massachusetts  Historical 
Society.  It  bears  date  (as  renewed)  "  George  Town,  in  Arrowsick  Island,  Aug. 
9,  1717." 


X 


Ti^ig ,  W D, C H inin an  from  a  cxayDn  sketch  bj  Rembrandt  Peale  in  the  possession  of  Geo.G)bbs.Esc^. 


)1L!IVIBIS  WOILiCOTTc 


HoUiaters  Hisfoi-  ,-   o£  Coiia- 


i^ 


\ 


[1720.]  SHUTE   AND  THE   PEOPLE.  883  / 

Indians  to  acts  of  violence.  Whether  this  is  true  or  false,  it 
is  certain  that  the  Indians  were  constantly  depredating  upon 
the  English  settlements,  and  it  appears  to  be  equally  so,  that 
they  acted  not  without  provocation. 

In  the  year  1720,  a  party  of  Indians  made  a  sudden  attack 
upon  Canso,  a  settlement  in  Nova  Scotia,  killed  several  of 
the  inhabitants  and  plundered  the  place.  A  number  of 
Frenchmen  from  Cape  Breton,  acted  in  concert  and  carried 
off  the  booty  in  their  vessels.  A  reprisal  followed,  and  this 
was  succeeded  by  other  depredations.  The  English  were 
said  to  have  sustained  a  loss  of  about  £20,000,  which  the 
government  at  Louisbourg  refused  to  make  good,  on  the 
ground  that  the  plunderers  were  not  French  subjects.* 

The  troubles  at  Canso,  alarmed  the  people  of  eastern 
Massachusetts,  and  Colonel  Walton,  with  a  party  of  soldiers, 
was  sent  out  to  defend  that  part  of  the  country.  But  as  the 
disturbances  still  continued.  Governor  Shute,  who  had  been 
in  favor  of  an  amicable  settlement  of  these  difficulties  that 
had  grown  doubtless  out  of  a  disturbance  of  land  titles  dur- 
ing the  war  ending  in  the  capture  of  Port  Royal,  now 
ordered  Walton  to  inform  the  Indians  that  commissioners 
should  be  sent  to  determine  all  differences.  The  popular 
sentiment  in  Massachusetts  was,  however,  opposed  to  a  nego- 
tiation, and  before  the  terms  could  be  agreed  on,  the  General 
Court  was  called  and  the  house  resolved  that  one  hundred 
and  fifty  men  should  march  forthwith  to  Norridgewock,  and, 
sword  in  hand,  compel  the  Indians  there  to  make  full  restitu- 
tion for  all  the  mischief  that  they  had  done.  It  was  also  re- 
solved that  the  sheriff  of  York  county  should  have  a  war- 
rant to  arrest  Father  Ralle  and  bring  him  to  Boston ;  and 
that  if  that  officer  could  not  find  him,  the  Indians  should 
take  him  and  deliver  him  up.  It  was  also,  radically  enough, 
determined  that  if  the  Indians  should  refuse  to  betray  their 
friend  in  this  way,  they  should  themselves  be  apprehended 
and  brought  as  prisoners  to  Boston  for  punishment.f  The 
*  Hutchinson,  ii.  217,  218;  Trumbull,  ii.  60. 
t  Hutchinson,  ii.  218. 


884  HISTORY   OF   CONNECTICUT. 

governor  and  council,  foreseeing  that  this  summary  proceed- 
ing would  end  in  a  vexatious  war,  refused  to  concur  with 
the  house.* 

Thus  the  matter  remained  unsettled,  until  the  next  year, 
when  about  two  hundred  Indians  with  two  French  Jesuits, 
came  down  to  Georgetown,  on  Arrowsick  Island,  and  left  a 
letter  for  the  governor,  filled  with  bitter  complaints  against 
the  English.  The  old  subject  matter  of  complaint,  the  title 
to  their  lands,  was  the  burden  of  the  letter.  Father  Ralle 
was  understood  to  be  the  author  of  the  charges  contained  in 
it,  and  was  said  to  have  filled  the  hearts  of  the  Indians  with 
resentment. 

While  affairs  remained  in  this  uncertain  condition,  the 
sachem  of  the  Norridgewocks  died,  and  a  new  chief  suc- 
ceeded him  of  a  more  pacific  character.  Through  his  influ- 
ence and  the  advice  of  the  old  counselors,  hostages  were 
soon  after  sent  to  Boston  as  pledges  for  the  future  good  be- 
havior of  the  tribe,  and  as  a  guarranty  for  the  hquidation  of 
the  old  demands  for  damages.  Still  Ralle  was  thought  to  be 
active  in  fermenting  disturbances  and  instigating  the  Indians 
to  war.  Mutual  accusations  followed,  until  at  last  the  Eng- 
lish were  so  inflamed  that  at  a  meeting  of  the  General  Court 
of  Massachusetts,  on  the  27th  of  August,  it  was  resolved  that 
three  hundred  men  should  be  sent  to  the  Indian  head-quar- 
ters, to  demand  that  the  Jesuits  should  be  surrendered  up  to 
the  English.  This  demand  was  to  be  enforced  by  severe 
penalties.  The  council  concurred  and  the  governor  reluc- 
tantly consented.  Still,  as  he  had  the  Indian  hostages  in 
keeping  at  the  castle,  he  issued  no  order  for  the  raising  of 
the  troops.  Not  long  after  this,  however,  the  hostages  es- 
caped, and  the  governor  gave  orders  for  levying  the  soldiers. 
These  orders  were  countermanded  as  soon  as  the  hostages 
were  taken  and  sent  back  to  Boston. f 

In  November,  the  General  Court  again  met,  when  the 
house  complained  loudly  of  the  governor  for  these  delays. 

*  Trumbull ;  Hutchinson  ;  Bancroft. 
t  Trumbull. 


[1722.]  UNION   OF  THE   EASTEKN  TEIBES.  385 

Reluctantly  the  council  again  consented  that  a  party  of  sol- 
diers should  be  sent  to  Norridgewock  to  enforce  the  demands 
of  the  court. 

When  this  party  arrived  at  the  principal  village  occupied 
by  the  tribe,  not  an  Indian  was  to  be  found.  They  had  been 
apprised  of  the  coming  of  the  English,  and  had  fled  into  the 
woods,  with  Father  Ralle,  the  chief  object  of  pursuit,  under 
their  protection.  Although  disappointed  in  not  obtaining 
possession  of  his  person,  the  invading  party  succeeded  in 
finding  his  books  and  papers,  which  they  seized  and  carried 
off  with  them. 

The  Indians  did  not  forget  this  act  of  violence,  and  in 
June  of  the  next  year  a  party  of  sixty  warriors  with  twenty 
canoes,  dropped  suddenly  into  Merry  Meeting  Bay,  and  took 
nine  families  prisoners.  Several  incursions  of  a  Hke  charac- 
ter, though  wanting  the  horrors  usually  attending  a  savage 
invasion,  followed  at  brief  intervals,  and  still  showed  how 
restless  was  the  spirit  of  revenge  that  prompted  them.  Other 
Englishmen  were  taken  captive  from  time  to  time.  Finally, 
emboldened  by  success,  the  Indians  burned  the  village  of 
Brunswick,  near  Casco  Bay.  This  led  to  a  formal  declara- 
tion of  war  on  the  part  of  Massachusetts. 

The  Penobscots,  the  Cape  Sable  Indians,  and  those  at  St. 
John's,  and  St.  Francois,  now  joined  with  the  Norridge- 
wocks,  and  mustered  their  braves  for  a  bloody  war.  United 
as  they  were,  they  seemed  likely  to  prove  a  terrible  enemy. 
In  July,  they  made  a  descent  upon  the  coast,  surprised  Can- 
so  and  other  hai"bors,  and  seized  seventeen  English  fishing 
vessels.  The  Indians  had  learned  to  manage  a  sail  with  skill, 
and  could  use  fire-arms.  They  now  began  to  kill  and  scalp 
their  prisoners  in  cold  blood.  They  gathered  in  larger  num- 
bers, too,  as  the  war  advanced.  In  September  about  five 
hundred  of  them  made  an  attempt  upon  the  village  and  fort 
at  Arrowsick  Island.  The  inhabitants  flew  from  the  village 
to  the  fort  only  to  see  their  houses  laid  in  ashes.  It  was  not 
an  easy  task  to  defend  the  fort  itself.* 

*  Holmes  :  Hutchinson ;  Trumbull. 
25 


886  HISTOEY   OF  COls^NECTICUT. 

Now  that  war  was  declared,  and  its  terrible  signals  began 
to  beacon  up  along  the  coast  and  river  settlements,  shedding 
a  baleful  light  upon  the  fortifications  that  even  French  valor 
had  not  been  able  to  keep  from  the  English,  the  people  of 
the  eastern  border  forgot  their  hatred  of  Father  Ralle  for 
awhile  to  reflect  upon  their  own  dangers.  New  York,  too, 
began  to  be  alarmed.  Governor  Shute,  anxious  to  avert  the 
calamity  that  he  had  used  his  best  efforts  to  prevent,  now 
addressed  a  letter  to  Governor  Saltonstall,  asking  for  men 
and  supplies  to  carry  on  the  war.  He  was  imprudent  enough 
to  suggest,  that  if  Connecticut  declined  to  act  in  the  matter, 
a  portion  of  her  militia  should  be  put  under  his  command. 
Nothing  could  have  been  more  impolitic  than  such  an  allu- 
sion. It  brought  the  images  of  Joseph  Dudley  and  Lord 
Cornbury  in  a  moment  before  the  General  Assembly.  Un- 
luckily, too,  Governor  Burnet  of  New  York  had  sent  a  let- 
ter seconding  the  request  of  Shute. 

With  great  unanimity,  both  Houses  resolved  that  the  mis- 
chief done  by  a  few  eastern  Indians,  was  not  worthy  to  be 
dignified  with  the  name  of  an  invasion,  and  did  not  call  for 
a  general  rally  of  the  colonies  from  New  Hampshire  to  Vir- 
ginia, to  defend  it.  With  much  stateliness  the  legislature 
therefore  declined  to  render  any  assistance  beyond  that  of 
sending  a  detachment  of  fifty  men  into  the  new  county  of 
Hampshire,  and  putting  the  border  towns  of  Connecticut  in 
a  posture  of  defense.*  The  Assembly  was  by  no  means  satis- 
fied that  the  existing  state  of  aflTairs  was  at  all  necessary,  or 
that  the  part  that  Massachusetts  had  taken  in  it  was  law- 
ful. 

In  November,  the  General  Court  of  Massachusetts  con- 
vened, and  appointed  commissioners  to  treat  with  the  six 
nations.  They  were  instructed  to  offer  these  Indians  a  pre- 
mium for  the  scalps  of  the  eastern  Indians.  The  court  resum- 
ed at  this  session  the  old  quarrel  with  the  governor,  and  finally 
succeeded  in  making  him  so  unhappy  that  he  embarked  for 
England.     He  does  not  appear  to  have  been  a  very  astute 

*  Colonial  Records,  MS. 


[1725.]  CONNECTICUT  REFUSES  TO  FIGHT.  887 

politician,  but  was  certainly  insulted  and  abused  for  doing 
what  in  all  probability  was  right,  in  regard  to  a  war  that 
would  not  have  broken  out  had  his  pacific  and  equitable 
counsels  been  followed.* 

I  pass  by  the  details  of  Colonel  Westbrook's  expedition, 
the  destruction  of  the  church,  castle,  and  village  upon  the 
Penobscot  river,  too  like  an  Indian  depredation  to  have  owed 
its  origin  to  a  christian  people,  and  the  equally  painful  recital 
of  the  destruction  of  the  village  of  Norridgewock,  by  Moul- 
ton,  where  only  fifty  of  the  inhabitants  escaped  the  general 
massacre  that  resulted  in  the  wanton  murder  of  Father  Ralle, 
the  fruit  of  bigotry  and  revenge,  and  in  the  cruel  butchery 
of  the  wife  and  helpless  children  of  an  Indian  chief  whose 
worst  crime  was,  that  he  had  killed  a  Mohawk  while  invad- 
ing his  dwelling ;  nor  need  I  speak  of  the  shameful  maraud 
of  John  Lovell,  desecrating  the  banks  of  the  Penobscot,  and 
the  shores  of  Winnepesiaukee  in  quest  of  scalps,  for  every  one 
of  which,  the  General  Court  of  Massachusetts  had  offered  the 
the  stimulating  reward  of  one  hundred  pounds.  I  will  only 
say,  Connecticut  regarded  the  war  itself  as  unnecessary,  and 
shrunk  with  horror  from  the  barbarities  that  their  too  ex- 
cited and  deluded  neighbors  permitted  to  be  perpetrated. 

That  she  did  nothing  in  this  unhappy  war  beyond  the  de- 
fense of  her  own  frontiers,  and  those  of  the  county  of 
Hampshire,  solicited,  as  she  was,  again  and  again,  affords  an 
excellent  illustration  of  the  temperance  of  her  statesmen, 
and  the  christian  spirit  that  dictated  her  counsels. 

The  war  cost  her  several  thousand  pounds,  but  as  she 
acted  solely  on  the  defensive,  not  a  single  life  was  sacrificed 
in  the  colony. 

Notwithstanding  the  continual  excitement  and  alarm,  and 
the  exorbitant  taxation,  consequent  upon  these  expeditions, 
the  older  towns  in  the  colony  continued  to  send  out  fresh  re- 

*  Gov.  Samuel  Shute  had  served  as  lieut.  colonel  under  the  duke  of  Marlbo- 
rough. He  arrived  hi  Boston  with  his  commission  as  governor  of  Massachusetts, 
Oct.  4,  1716  ;  and  saUed  for  England,  Jan.  1,  1723.  He  died  in  1742,  aged 
88  years. 


388  HISTORY  OF  CONNECTICUT. 

cruits  to  subdue  the  forests  and  form  new  settlements  in  the 
more  remote  wilderness. 

In  1706,  a  few  pioneers  had  established  themselves  upon 
certain  lands  in  Ashford ;  and  the  number  of  settlers  had  so 
increased,  that  the  town  was  incorporated  in  1714.  The 
brave  Colonel  Thomas  Knowlton,  of  revolutionary  renown, 
was  a  native  of  Ashford. 

Tolland  was  incorporated  in  1715.  It  was  laid  out  six 
miles  square.  The  township  was  rough,  and  a  large  part  of 
it  was  claimed  by  persons  who  were  legatees  of  Uncas,  the 
Mohegan  sachem.  These  circumstances  retarded  the  growth 
of  the  settlement,  so  that  there  were  but  twenty-eight  fami- 
lies in  the  town  in  1720.  The  names  of  some  of  the  early 
settlers  were,  Stearns,  Chapman,  Grant,  West,  Carpenter, 
Dimock,  and  Aborne. 

The  township  of  Stafford,  was  surveyed  in  1718,  and  the 
settlement  began  during  the  next  spring.  At  the  May  ses- 
sion of  the  Assembly,  1719,  the  unsold  lands  in  that  town 
were  ordered  to  be  disposed  of,  "  and  the  proceeds  to  be  paid 
into  the  treasury  of  Yale  College."  The  principal  settlers 
were,  Mr.  Robert  White  and  Mr.  Matthew  Thompson,  from 
Europe ;  the  Warners,  from  Hadley ;  the  Blodgets,  from 
Woborn  ;  Cornelius  Davis,  from  Haverhill ;  Daniel  Colburn, 
from  Dedham  ;  John  Pasco,  from  Enfield ;  Josiah  Standish, 
from  Preston ;  Benjamin  Rockwell,  from  Windsor ;  and 
Joseph  Orcutt,  from  Weymouth. 

The  settlement  at  Bolton,  commenced  in  1716,  but  the 
first  town  meeting  was  not  held  until  1720.  In  October  of 
the  last  mentioned  year,  the  town  was  incorporated. 
The  first  settlers  were  of  the  names  of  Pitkin,  Talcott, 
Loomis,  Bissell,  Strong,  Olcott,  and  Bishop. 

In  1720,  a  few  settlers  took  up  their  abode  upon  the  "west- 
ern lands,"  at  a  place  called  "Bantam."  During  the  follow- 
ing year,  several  purchasers  moved  on  to  the  tract  from 
Hartford  and  Windsor.  The  town  was  surveyed,  and  laid 
out  into  sixty  equal  divisions  or  rights,  three  of  which  were 
reserved  for  public  uses.     The  act  of  incorporation  was 


[1724.]  LITCHFIELD.  889 

passed  by  the  General  Assembly  at  the  May  session,  1724. 
Among  the  first  settlers  whose  descendants  still  remain  in  the 
town,  were  those  bearing  the  names  of  Marsh,  Buel,  Baldwin, 
Birge,  Beebe,  Culver,  Catlin,  Goodwin,  Gibbs,  Garrett,  Gris- 
wold,  Kilbourn,  Mason,  Phelps,  Peck,  Stoddard,  Sanford, 
Smedley,  Webster,  and  Woodruff,  This  town  at  the  time, 
of  its  incorporation,  took  the  name  of  Litchfield,  and  has 
since  1751,  been  the  shire  town  of  a  large  county.  It  has 
also  a  history  of  its  own  that  will  unfold  itself  during 
the  progress  of  this  work.  Its  future  reputation  could 
hardly  have  been  prophecied  from  its  humble  infancy  in  the 
midst  of  a  wilderness  hardly  yet  subdued. 


CHAPTER  XIX 


WAE  WITH  PEANCE  AND  SPAIN.    CAPTUEE  OF  LOUISBOUEG. 

The  reign  of  George  I.  was  now  over,  and  his  son,  one  of 
the  most  able  monarchs  of  modern  times,  was  just  begin- 
ning to  evince  the  strong  intelligence  and  keen  love  of  war 
that  was  in  a  few  years  to  add  so  much  to  the  territory  and 
renown  of  the  British  empire. 

In  the  fall  of  1739,  it  appeared  obvious  to  the  General 
Assembly  of  Connecticut,  that  certain  differences  then  dis- 
turbing the  amicable  relations  of  England  and  Spain,  must 
soon  lead  to  a  war  between  the  two  powers.  The  Assembly, 
therefore,  took  speedy  measures  to  place  the  colony  in  an 
attitude  of  defense.  It  was  ordered  that  ten  cannon,  with 
suitable  ammunition,  should  be  provided,  to  increase  the 
strength  of  the  battery  at  New  London,  and  that  a  well 
armed  sloop  of  war  should  be  employed  to  guard  the  coast. 
An  order  was  further  made  to  supply  the  feeble  and  remote 
towns  with  the  means  of  protecting  themselves,  and  the 
militia  were  formed  into  thirteen  regiments — each  regiment 
being  officered  by  a  colonel,  a  lieutenant-colonel,  and  a 
major.* 

War  meanwhile  was  declared  against  Spain,  and  the  min- 
istry, glad  to  be  rid  of  a  clamorous  and  by  no  means  insig- 
nificant opponent,  and  to  assail  the  enemy  in  a  weak  point, 
resolved  on  sending  Admiral  Vernon  upon  an  expedition 
where  he  would  have  an  opportunity  of  making  good  some  of 
his  stately  declarations  as  to  the  exploits  that  he  could  per- 
form if  he  were  but  invested  with  the  command  of  a  few 
ships.     The  Spanish  West  Indies,  Porto  Bello,  Carthagena 

*  At  the  Bam e  session  (Oct.,  1739,)  the  governor  was  made  captain  general, 
and  the  deputy  governor  was  made  lieutenant-general  of  the  militia  of  Con- 
necticut. 


.J ,  QeW.  B  A^^JDD)  WiD) €)  §  TEH 0 


HoUiftexsHiitorr  r>t  i^  ,  ,miPch.:ur 


[1740.]  PEEPAEATIOXS  AGAINST  SPAIlSr.  391 

and  Cuba,  were  to  be  the  principal  objects  aimed  at  by  the 
government,  and  requisitions  were  made  upon  the  colonies 
to  furnish  troops  for  this  exciting  theatre  of  naval  opera- 
tions. The  design  was  to  raise  four  provincial  regiments  to 
be  transported  to  Jamaica,  where  they  were  to  be  united 
with  the  main  body  of  the  British  forces.  The  colonies 
were  to  provide  all  necessaries  for  the  men  thus  raised  by 
them,  until  they  should  reach  this  rendezvous.  They  were 
further  expected  to  pay  all  the  expenses  of  the  transporta- 
tion. As  the  House  of  Brunswick  owed  its  accession  to  the 
throne,  and  its  perpetuity,  to  the  fact  that  it  was  understood, 
to  be  the  champion  of  protestantism,  it  is  quite  probable  that 
the  zeal  manifested  by  England  as  well  as  by  Connecticut  in 
this  war,  was  in  part  owing  to  the  fact  that  Spain  was  a 
catholic  power. 

In  July,  1740,  a  special  assembly  was  called,  and  measures  » 
were  very  readily  taken  to  answer  to  his  majesty's  demands 
to  help  forward  the  "  expedition  against  the  territories  of  the 
catholic  king,  in  the  West  Indies."* 

As  soon  as  the  requisition  reached  the  governor  of  Con- 
necticut, he  issued  his  proclamation  making  known  the 
will  of  the  crown,  and  calling  upon  those  who  were  willing 
to  volunteer  for  the  service,  to  hold  themselves  in  readiness. 
Committees  were  now  appointed  to  superintend  the  military 
preparations,  and  to  take  the  names  of  such  as  had  decided 
to  enlist.  That  every  inducement  might  be  offered  to  the 
citizens  to  join  the  expedition,  the  Assembly  resolved  that 
the  governor  and  council  should  speedily  appoint  the  officers 
for  the  troops,  and  that  volunteer  soldiers  should  have 
the  privilege  of  selecting  those  under  whom  they  would 
serve.  His  excellency  was  requested  by  the  Assembly  to 
issue  a  second  proclamation,  making  known  to  the  people 
with  more  particularity  the  will  of  the  king,  and  again 
inviting  those  who  were  able-bodied  to  hand  in  their  names 
to  the  committee  in  each  county.  That  there  might  be  no 
delay,  the  governor  and  committee  of  war  were  authorized 

*  Colonial  Records,  MS. 


392  HISTORY   OF   CONNECTICUT. 

to  draw  on  the  public  treasury  for  such  sums  as  they  should 
deem  necessary  for  the  outfit.  A  sloop  of  war  of  six  hun- 
dred tons  burthen  was  ordered  to  be  procured  for  the  fur- 
ther protection  of  the  coast. 

At  the  preceding  session,  bills  of  credit  had  been  issued 
to  the  amount  of  £30,000 ;  and  at  the  July  session,  the  issue 
was  increased  £15,000  more — making  in  all  £45,000  ;*  an 
enormous  sum,  when  we  consider  the  object  of  the  war,  and 
the  limited  resources  of  the  colony. 

The  preparations  in  England  were  pushed  forward  with 
singular  dispatch.  Money  was  appropriated  without  stint 
to  fit  out  a  fleet  and  armament  that  should  at  the  same  time 
satisfy  the  national  pride  and  silence  the  clamors  of  the 
opposition. 

In  October,  the  armament  sailed  from  England  under  the 
« command  of  Lord  Cathcart,  whose  talents  and  great  popu- 
larity added  something  to  the  good  auguries  that  seemed  to 
attend  the  enterprise.  His  lordship  was  conveyed  by  twenty- 
five  ships  of  the  line,  with  a  corresponding  number  of  fri- 
gates, fire-ships,  bomb-ketchers,  tenders,  hospital  ships,  and 
all  the  other  enginery  of  mischief  that  even  then  attended 
the  British  flag,  wherever  it  floated  in  hostile  array  over 
the  ocean. 

After  the  union  of  this  large  force,  with  that  of  Vice  Admi- 
ral Vernon  at  Jamaica,  the  whole  fleet  amounted  to  twenty- 
nine  ships  of  the  fine,  and  as  many  frigates. 

There  were  fifteen  thousand  seamen.  The  land  army, 
including  the  provincial  troops,  amounted  to  twelve  thou- 
sand effective  men.  No  fleet  that  could  compare  with  it  in 
size  or  perfect  equipment  had  ever  visited  the  West  Indian 
seas.  It  is  not  surprising  that  Vernon,  who  had,  with  his 
few  ships,  as  early  as  November,  made  good  a  part  of  his 
prophecy  by  taking  and  plundering  Porto  Bello  and  demol- 
ishing its  fortifications,!  should  have  felt  his  heart  beat  with 
pride  when  he  saw  himself  at  last  at  the  head  of  such  an 
armament.  But  he  was  doomed  to  bitter  disappointment. 
*  Colonial  Records,  MS.    +  Univ.  Hist.  xii.  412,  416  ;  Holmes,  ii.  12. 


[1741.]  THE   FLEET  DRIVEN   FROM   CARTHAGENA.  393 

Lord  Cathcart  suddenly  died  before  the  union  of  the  fleets 
was  fully  effected.  His  death  threw  the  command  of  the 
army  upon  General  Wentworth,  who  proved  to  be  little 
more  than  an  instrument  in  the  hands  of  Vernon. 

Intoxicated  with  his  success  at  Porto  Bello,  and  inflamed 
with  the  true  English  hatred  of  France,  Vernon,  instead  of 
embracing  the  favorable  moment  to  take  possession  of  Car- 
thagena  while  it  was  in  no  condition  to  withstand  his  attacks, 
obtained  a  vote  of  the  council  of  war  to  beat  up  against  the 
wind  to  Hispaniola,  with  the  hope  of  meeting  with  a  French 
squadron  that  had  been  sent  from  Europe  under  the  Mar- 
quis d'Autin  to  reinforce  the  Spaniards.  This  search  ended 
in  nothing  but  chagrin  and  disaster.  The  squadron  that  the 
British  admiral  was  in  quest  of,  was  already  far  on  its  way  to 
France,  and  before  the  fleet  could  again  be  in  readiness  to 
attack  Carthagena,  the  garrison  there  had  been  so  rein- 
forced by  the  French  that  it  amounted  to  four  thousand 
men.* 

After  consuming  two  months  in  this  romantic  pastime, 
Vernon  and  Wentworth  set  themselves  busily  to  the  task  of 
subduing  Carthagena.  They  began  the  attack  on  the  10th  of 
March,  by  assailing  the  forts  and  castles  that  guarded  the 
harbor,  and  succeeded  at  length  in  demolishing  them  so  that 
the  admiral  could  effect  an  entrance.  Wentworth  now  made 
a  demonstration  upon  the  town,  but  was  driven  back  with 
the  loss  of  about  five  hundred  men.  Discouraged  at  this 
rebuff,  Vernon  and  Wentworth  appear  to  have  joined  in  the 
conclusion  that  it  was  idle  to  look  any  longer  for  laurels  at 
Carthagena.  About  the  1st  of  April,  therefore,  the  army 
and  fleet  were  withdrawn,  and  spent  some  time  in  the  plea- 
sant recreation  of  beating  about  the  islands  in  quest  of  Span- 
ish ships.  Six  Spanish  men  of  war,  eight  galleons  and  some 
smaller  vessels  were  thus  caught  while  fluttering  between 
their  respective  ports. f  But  the  assailants  soon  tired  of 
such  profitless  amusement. 

*  Trumbull,  ii.  267. 
+  Trumbull,  ii.  268 ;  see  also,  Holmes,  ii.  15 ;  Univ.  Hist.  xii.  429,  445. 


894  HISTORY  OF  CONNECTICUT. 

In  July,  fired  with  a  new  passion  for  glory,  they  made  an 
attack  upon  Cuba,  and  without  much  resistance  appropria- 
ted to  the  fleet  one  of  the  fine  harbors  with  which  that  noble 
island  abounds.  But  misfortune  followed  hard  upon  them  in 
the  shape  of  a  sudden  and  mortal  disease  that,  in  the  burning 
tropical  air,  preyed  frightfully  upon  the  vitals  of  the  army 
and  the  seamen  who  had  been  accustomed  to  the  invigora- 
ting  influences  of  a  northern  climate.  The  ravages  of  this 
enemy  were  like  those  of  the  plague,  or  of  that  more  mod- 
ern disease,  cholera.  For  nearly  a  week,  every  day  offered 
up  its  sacrifice  of  one  thousand  men  ;  and  at  the  height  of 
the  malady,  during  forty-eight  hours,  three  thousand  four 
hundred  and  forty  men  fell  victims  to  it.  Of  the  thousand 
athletic  soldiers  who  went  from  New  England,  not  one 
hundred  returned.* 

Thus  ended  this  inglorious  scheme,  but  the  war  still  con- 
tinued ;  and  it  was  resolved  that  it  should  never  be  brought 
to  an  end  until  some  treaty  stipulations  could  be  forced  from 
Spain,  that  would  place  the  southern  colonies  upon  a  safer 
footing  and  would  prevent  the  future  interruption  of  British 
trade. 

Thus,  year  after  year,  war,  like  a  slow  and  poisonous 
humor  in  the  blood,  continued  to  waste  the  vitality  of  the 
American  colonies.  In  vain  did  Governor  Oglethorpe  of 
Georgia  rally  the  brave  men  under  his  command,  seconded 
by  Virginia  and  the  Carolinas,  and  countenanced  by  the 
fickle  favors   of  the  few  Indians  that  could  be  induced  to 

*  Though  few  had  pei'ished  by  the  enemy,  it  was  computed,  on  a  moderate 
calculation,  that  before  the  arrival  at  Jamaica  20,000  English  subjects  had  died 
since  their  first  attack  on  Carthagena.  To  this  desolating  mortality  the  poet, 
Thompson  refers,  in  iis  admirable  description  of  the  "Pestilence:"  ["Seasons" 
—Summer,  I.,  1040,  1050.] 

"  Such  us,  of  late,  at  Carthagena  quench'd 
The  British  fire.     You,  gallant  Vernon  !  saw 
The  miserable  scene,  you  heard  the  groans 
Of  agonizing  ships  from  shore  to  shore ; 
Heard  nightly  plunged,  amid  the  sullen  waves, 
The  frequent  corse." 
Admiral  Vernon,  who  seems  to  have  been  held  in  high  esteem  by  the  oppo- 
Eition  in  England,  died  suddenly,  29th  of  October,  1757,  aged  73. 


[1744.]        WAR  BETWEEN"  ENGLAND  AND   FRAJSTCE.  895 

follow  him.  Without  the  help  of  the  mother  country,  and 
with  the  savages  that  lurked  in  the  hideous  swamps  of  the 
south,  malignant  as  the  serpents  that  are  generated  in 
the  hot  air  of  these  latitudes,  skulking  upon  his  trail,  he  still 
did  what  human  valor  could  do  to  deliver  the  south  from 
the  commercial  interference  and  arbitrary  exactions  of 
Spain.  But  for  want  of  a  sufficient  naval  force  he  was 
unable  to  take  possession  of  St.  Augustine,  and  with  the 
exception  of  two  Spanish  forts  that  he  succeeded  in  taking, 
the  expedition  failed.* 

France,  meanwhile,  though  affecting  to  maintain  her  neu- 
trality, did  every  thing  that  she  could  to  assist  Spain  in  pros- 
ecuting the  war  ;  secretly  at  first,  and  at  last  moi'e  openly, 
until,  on  the  4th  of  March,  1744,  she  had  the  frankness  to 
make  a  formal  declaration  of  war  against  England.  Soon 
after  England  made  a  like  announcement,  f 

Before  the  tidings  of  either  declaration  reached  the  shores 
of  New  England,  an  expedition  had  been  prepared  by 
Duvivoir,  a  French  officer  of  some  merit,  who  sailed  from 
Louisbourg,  and  on  the  13th  of  May,  surprised  and  took  pos- 
session of  Canso.J  He  then  made  a  similar  attempt  upon 
Annopolis,  (formerly  Port  Royal,)  and  would  doubtless  have 
succeeded  there  also  had  not  the  place  been  just  before  rein- 
forced by  troops  from  Massachusetts.  Louisbourg  was  also 
the  central  point  whence  there  radiated  a  large  number  of 
French  privateer  ships  and  men-of-war,  that  hovered  along 
the  New  England  coast  and  seized  upon  our  trading  and 
fishing  vessels  in  great  numbers.  It  thus  became  impossible 
for  the  eastern  colonies  to  carry  on  any  maritime  business 
whatever,  without  a  convoy,  and  such  a  necessity  involved 
an  expense  that  amounted  to  a  prohibition.  The  fishermen 
must  renounce  their  employment,  and  the  coasters  must 
keep  within  port,  or  run  the  risk  of  captivity  and  a  forfeit- 
ture  of  their  goods  and  vessels. § 

With  one  consent  the  people  of  New  England  resolved 

*  Holmes,  ii.  14, 15.     t  March  31. 
t  Holmes,  ii.  23  ;  Hutcliinson,  ii.  364.     §  Hutcliinson  ;  Trumbull. 


896  HISTORY  OF  CONN"ECTICUT. 

that  Louisbourg  must  be  taken ;  yet  at  first  no  one  appears 
to  have  thought  that  it  could  be  done  without  the  coopera- 
tion of  a  naval  force  from  England.  But  as  the  summer 
and  fall  passed  away,  and  as  winter  drew  on,  it  began  to  be 
whispered  at  Boston,  that  Louisbourg  might  be  taken  by 
surprise,  and  by  New  England  valor  alone.  These  intima- 
tions at  last  began  to  take  some  definite  form,  and  it  was 
believed  by  many  that  the  fortress  might  be  successfully 
besieged  at  a  season  of  the  year  when  the  garrison  was  pro- 
bably but  poorly  provisioned,  and  when  it  could  not  hope  to 
be  relieved  by  any  large  supplies  from  French  ships,  that 
would  hardly  venture  in  great  numbers  to  commit  them- 
selves to  the  rough  handling  of  the  Atlantic  coast  winds  in 
the  stormy  months.  It  was  suggested,  too,  that  a  naval 
force  adequate  to  keep  off  such  few  ships  as  might  attempt 
to  bring  supplies  for  the  relief  of  the  garrison,  could  be  found 
to  cruise  off  the  harbor,  until  the  enterprise  was  completed. 

Governor  Shirley,  of  Massachusetts,  meanwhile,  did  what 
he  could  to  learn  what  was  the  condition  of  the  fortress,  and 
how  long  it  would  be  likely  to  withstand  a  siege.  Those 
who  had  traded  at  that  post,  and  those  who  had  been  con- 
fined there  as  prisoners,  were  alike  consulted  for  informa- 
tion. Shirley  had  also  written  to  England,  begging  that 
armed  sloops  might  be  sent  to  protect  Annapolis  ;  and  should 
these  arrive  in  season,  he  hoped  to  avail  himself  of  them  to 
defend  the  provincial  troops  while  they  were  employed  in 
besieging  Louisbourg.  Commodore  Warren,  who  was  at 
the  West  Indies  with  a  little  squadron,  might  also  reasona- 
bly be  expected,  either  to  arrive  with  his  whole  force,  or  to 
send  a  portion  of  it  to  the  relief  of  New  England,  when 
once  he  had  been  made  acquainted  with  the  wants  of  the 
colonies. 

The  design  was  to  send  four  thousand  troops,  in  trans- 
ports, to  Canso,  and  as  soon  as  practicable  land  them  in 
Chapeaurouge  Bay.  This  army  was  to  be  provided  with 
cannon,  mortars,  and  whatever  else  was  necessary  for  the 
siege.     As  soon  as  the  winds  had  subsided  so  that  the  small 


[1745.]       GOVERNOR  SHIRLEY'S   PLAN   OP  ATTACK.  397 

vessels  that  the  colonies  could  muster  might  be  expected  to 
live  in  the  coast  waters  of  the  Atlantic,  a  number  of  them 
were  to  be  sent  to  hover  near  the  harbor  of  Louisbourg,  and 
cut  off  all  supplies  or  reinforcements  from  the  fortification. 
A  minute  calculation  was  made  of  the  probable  naval  force 
of  New  England.  It  was  found  that  the  aggregate  of  their 
armed  vessels  could  not  exceed  twelve,  and  the  largest  of  these 
only  mounted  twenty  guns.  Yet  with  such  a  force  it  was 
believed  that  there  was  more  than  an  even  chance  for  suc- 
cess. If  the  ships  from  England,  or  those  from  the  Indies, 
should  arrive,  the  result  might  be  regarded  as  almost  cer- 
tain. 

Early  in  January,  1745,  Governor  Shirley  made  known 
this  plan  to  the  General  Court.  The  most  solemn  secresy 
was  enjoined  upon  all  the  members  of  the  two  houses.* 
Although  most  of  the  principal  men  of  the  colony  were 
doubtless  aware  of  the  scheme,  and  although  the  necessity 
that  Louisbourg  should  be  taken,  was  a  common  topic  of 
discourse  throughout  New  England,  yet  the  details  of  the 
plan,  and  the  hurry  with  which  it  was  proposed  to  attempt 
it,  without  the  help,  and  even  without  the  sanction  of  Eng- 
land, was  appalling  to  the  minds  of  the  country  representa- 
tives. With  dispassionate  calmness  they  debated  the  matter 
for  several  days. 

By  those  who  favored  the  measure  it  was  argued,  that  if 
this  fortress  should  remain  in  the  hands  of  the  French,  it 
would  be  the  Dunkirk  of  New  England ;  that  the  French 
were  already  tired  of  attempting  to  compete  with  the  colo- 
nies in  fishing,  and  that  if  this  stronghold  was  allowed  to 
remain  in  their  possession,  it  would  soon  be  the  rendezvous 
of  a  knot  of  pirates  and  privateers,  who  would  find  it  easier 
to  rifle  the  fishing  vessels  of  the  English  than  to  trouble 
themselves  with  the  details  of  a  business  they  did  not  find 
congenial  to  their  habits  of  life. 

In  addition  to  this  calamity,   it  was  quite  probable  that 
Nova   Scotia,  won    with   such  toil  from    the    dominion   of 
*  Holmes,  ii.  28  ;  Hutchinson,  ii.  366. 


398  HISTOEY  OF  CONNECTICUT. 

France,  and  still  inhabited  in  part  by  disaffected  French- 
men, would  be  liable  at  any  time  to  make  a  successful  revolt, 
so  long  as  the  garrison  at  Louisbourg  continued  to  give 
countenance  to  such  a  project.  This  reprisal,  could  it  be 
effected,  would  of  itself  add  at  least  six  thousand  to  the  num- 
ber of  active  enemies,  that  were  already  so  powerful  and  so 
unscrupulous. 

Besides,  it  was  urged  that  the  garrison,  ill-provisioned  as 
it  was,  could  not  be  expected  to  make  a  very  vigorous 
resistance  ;  that  the  walls  of  the  fort  were  dilapidated,  its 
barracks  out  of  repair  and  scarcely  tenantable,  and  its  gov- 
ernor an  old  and  infirm  man,  unused  to  the  arts  of  war. 
If  a  favorable  blow  was  to  be  struck,  it  must  be  done  then. 
Such  were  a  few  of  the  arguments  made  use  of  by  the 
advocates  of  the  expedition.* 

In  reply,  it  was  urged  with  great  force,  that  the  rumors 
so  freely  circulated,  of  the  condition  of  the  works  and  the 
garrison  at  Louisbourg,  could  not  be  safely  relied  on  ;  that 
appearances  were  not  to  be  trusted ;  that  the  garrison, 
though  small,  was  made  up  of  well  disciplined  soldiers,  who 
were  a  match  for  many  times  their  number  of  raw  provin- 
cial troops  ;  that  the  chances  were  as  great,  to  say  the  least, 
that  ships  of  war  would  arrive  from  France  to  relieve  the 
fort  and  augment  its  garrison,  as  that  armed  vessels  would 
come  from  England  or  the  West  Indies  to  protect  the  pro- 
vincial army ;  and  that  at  the  best  such  a  calculation,  based 
upon  probabilities  and  contingencies,  was  too  vague  and 
speculative  to  be  made  the  basis  of  a  military  campaign, 
that  might  involve  the  dearest  interests  of  the  colonies.  It 
was  said  that  prudent  men  should  look  at  both  sides  of  the 
question,  and  estimate  the  chances  of  failure  as  well  as  those 
of  success  ;  that  if,  while  the  siege  was  in  progress,  there 
should  appear  off  the  harbor  a  single  French  man-of-war, 
it  could  put  to  flight  the  whole  naval  force  of  the  colonies, 
small  as  were  their  crafts,  and  unaccustomed  as  their  sailors 
were  to  the  dangers  of  naval  warfare.     Further  than  this, 

*  Hutchinson,  ii.  366,  367. 


[1745.]  THE   MEASUEE   IS    APPROVED.  399 

who  could  vouch  for  the  cooperation  of  the  other  colonies, 
or  even  for  their  ability  to  furnish  the  men  and  the  ships  that 
were  admitted  by  the  most  enthusiastic  advocates  of  the 
scheme  to  be  requisite  to  carry  it  on  ?  More  than  all,  who 
but  the  ruler  of  the  wind  and  the  storm  could  foresee  or 
guard  against  the  treacherous  dangers  of  the  deep,  at  a  sea- 
son of  the  year  when  the  coast  was  white  with  breakers, 
and  the  caps  of  the  waves  towered  above  the  masts  of  the 
little  vessels  that  were  expected  to  contend  with  them? 
Finally,  even  should  the  attack  result  favorably,  would  it 
not  redound  to  the  glory  of  England,  while  it  proved  a 
thankless  labor  for  the  colonies,  which  might  ask  in  vain  to  be 
remunerated  for  the  heavy  expenses  that  they  had  incurred 
in  the  war.* 

Such  arguments  as  these  prevailed,  and  the  measure  was 
lost  in  the  house.  In  this  decision  the  council  acquiesced, 
and  for  some  days  the  project  appeared  to  have  been  forgot- 
ten.|  Governor  Shirley  himself  seemed  to  have  been  con- 
vinced of  his  error  by  the  cogent  reasoning  of  the  opposi- 
tion. But  Shirley  was  a  man  not  easily  baffled.  He 
secretly  set  himself  at  work  to  bring  external  influences  to 
bear  upon  the  recusant  members.  All  at  once,  as  if  by 
a  spontaneous  movement,  the  merchants  and  other  rich  and 
influential  men  of  Massachusetts  began  to  petition  the  Gen- 
eral Court  to  revive  and  pass  the  defeated  measure.  The 
petition  set  forth  all  the  reasons  that  could  be  suggested  in 
favor  of  the  expedition.  The  flagging  of  commerce,  espe- 
cially the  destruction  of  the  fishing  and  coasting  business, 
were  the  main  considerations  that  were  pressed  upon  the 
court. 

A  committee  was  appointed  to  investigate  the  matter 
anew,  and  was  finally  prevailed  on  to  recommend  the  mea- 
sure. For  another  day  the  subject  was  debated,  and  when  the 
question  was  taken  in  the  house,  it  was  carried  by  a  single 
vote.J     Entire  unanimity  prevailed  in  both  houses  as  soon 

*  Hutcliinson,  ii.  367,  368.  t  Hutchinson,  ii.  368  ;  Holmes,  ii.  25. 

i  Holmes,  Hutchinson,  Trumbull,  Bancroft. 


400  HISTORY   OF   CONNECTICUT. 

as  the  determination  of  the  court  was  made  known,  and  all 
parties  now  addressed  themselves  with  vigor  to  the  work  of 
preparation.  Dispatches  were  sent  to  the  neighboring  colo- 
nies, soliciting  their  assistance.  All  the  colonies,  except 
those  of  New  England,  refused  to  participate  in  the  dangers 
of  the  undertaking.  It  was  determined  that  Massachusetts 
should  raise  three  thousand  two  hundred  and  fifty  men  ; 
that  Connecticut  should  be  required  to  furnish  five  hundred  ; 
and  Rhode  Island  and  New  Hampshire,  each  three  hundred. 

As  soon  as  this  request  was  made  known  to  Governor  Law, 
he  called  a  special  session  of  the  Assembly,  which  convened 
at  Hartford  on  the  26th  of  February,  and  immediately  voted 
to  raise  five  hundred  men  for  the  service.  A  bounty  of  ten 
pounds  was  voted  to  each  soldier  who  should  provide  him- 
self with  arms,  knapsack,  and  blanket.  These  troops  were 
divided  into  eight  companies.  Roger  Wolcott,  the  Lieu- 
tenant Governor,  was  appointed  commander-in-chief  of  the 
Connecticut  forces  ;  Andrew  Burr,  colonel ;  Simeon  Lathrop, 
lieutenant-colonel ;  and  Israel  Newton,  major.*  It  was 
ordered  that  the  sloop  of  war,  Defense,  should  sail  as  the 
convoy  of  the  regiment.  New  London  was  to  be  the 
place  of  embarkation.  The  most  liberal  measures  were  taken 
to  furnish  supplies  and  munitions  of  war,  under  the  direction 
of  commissioners,  while  Jonathan  Trumbull  and  Elisha  Wil- 
liams, Esquires,  constituted  a  separate  board,  who  were  to 
repair  to  Boston  and  treat  with  the  gentlemen  whom  they 
should  find  there  representing  Massachusetts  or  the  other 
New  England  colonies,  as  to  the  general  plan  and  details 
of  the  undertaking. t  Only  three  days  were  spent  in  this 
most  important  matter. 

The  mildness  of  the  weather,  so  unusual  in  March,  made 
the  task  of  getting  the  men  together,  and  furnishing  them 
with  necessaries,  remarkably  easy. 

The  popularity  of  colonel,  afterwards  Sir  William  Pep- 


*  Elizur  Goodrich,  David  Wooster,  Stephen  Lee,  Samuel  Adams,  and  John 
Dvvight,  were  appointed  captains  at  the  same  session, 
t  Colony  Records,  MS. 


[1745]  TIDINGS   OF   COMMODORE   WAEREN.  401 

perell,  commander-in-chief  of  the  army,  and  of  Roger  Wol- 
cott,  the  second  in  command,  induced  the  better  sort  of 
people  to  enhst.  Massachusetts  and  Connecticut  sent  out 
some  of  their  best  freeholders,  and  the  ranks  were  filled 
with  the  sons  of  wealthy  farmers.  The  merchants  of  the 
principal  towns,  the  clergymen,  and  other  educated  gentle- 
men, made  great  sacrifices  to  render  the  armament  as  com- 
plete as  possible.  The  whole  naval  power  of  New  England 
that  could  be  made  available  in  this  emergency,  consisted  of 
only  twelve  vessels,  viz.,  the  Connecticut  sloop  of  war,  ano- 
ther fine  sloop  of  war  belonging  to  Rhode  Island,  a  privateer 
ship  of  two  hundred  tons  burthen,  a  snow  belonging  to 
Newport,  a  new  snow  under  the  command  of  Captain  Rouse, 
another  commanded  by  Captain  Smethurst,  a  ship  under  the 
command  of  Captain  Snelling,  a  brig  under  Captain  Fletcher, 
three  small  sloops  under  Captains  Saunders,  Donehew, 
and  Bosch,  and  a  ship  of  twenty  guns,  under  Captain  Ting, 
who  commanded  the  whole  force.* 

All  that  New  York  could  be  induced  to  do  in  aid  of  the 
enterprise,  was  to  yield  a  very  tardy  assent  to  the  solicita- 
tions of  Governor  Shirley  for  the  loan  of  ten  eighteen- 
pounders. 

The  special  assembly  of  Connecticut,  that  had  been  con- 
voked by  Governor  Law  on  the  26th  of  February,  stood 
adjourned  until  the  14th  of  March,  when  it  met  and 
appointed  five  more  captains,  whose  names  were  James 
Church,  Daniel  Chapman,  WiUiam  Whiting,  Robert  Denison, 
and  Andrew  Ward.  The  Rev.  Elisha  Williams,  who  had 
been  rector  of  Yale  College,  was  selected  to  accompany  the 
Connecticut  troops  as  chaplain. f 

By  the  23d  of  March,  the  other  Massachusetts  troops 
were  all  embarked  and  ready  to  weigh  anchor.  The  express 
boat  from  the  West  Indies  arrived  with  tidings  from  Com- 
modore Warren.  The  purport  of  his  answer  was,  that  he 
had  lost  one  of  his  ships,  and  was  thereby  much  disabled  ; 
and,  further,  he  did  not  deem  it  prudent  for  him  to  intermed- 

*  Hutchinson,  ii.  369  ;  Trumbull,  ii.  275.         t  Colony  Records,  MS. 

26 


402  HISTORY   OF   CONNECTICUT. 

die  in  a  matter  that  seemed  to  want  the  sanction  of  the 
British  government.  This  discouraging  information  was  not 
made  known,  however,  by  Governor  Shirley  to  the  army,  and 
the  fleet  immediately  sailed.  About  the  same  time  the  Con- 
necticut troops  and  those  from  the  two  other  colonies  set 
sail. 

The  New  Hampshire  forces  arrived  at  Canso  on  the  1st 
of  April ;  those  from  Massachusetts,  on  the  4th,  and  those 
from  Connecticut,  on  the  25th.  The  land  army  consisted  of 
four  thousand  able  bodied  men,  well  officered  and  in  excel- 
lent spirits.* 

Scarcely  had  the  Massachusetts  express  boat  taken  leave 
of  Commodore  Warren,  when  dispatches  from  England 
reached  him,  commanding  him  to  sail  for  Boston  with  such 
ships  as  could  be  spared,  to  assist  Governor  Shirley  in  con- 
certing and  carrying  out  measures  for  the  king's  general  ser- 
vice in  America.  Relieved  from  the  restraints,  that  had  before 
embarrassed  his  mind.  Warren  sent  out  an  express  to  such 
ships  as  were  to  be  found  in  the  western  seas,  to  join  him 
as  speedily  as  they  could,  and  with  joy  hastened  to  fulfil  the 
king's  commands.  On  his  passage  he  learned  that  the  fleet ' 
had  sailed  for  Canso,  and  without  putting  in  at  Boston  harbor, 
he  made  all  haste  to  reach  Canso,  where  he  arrived  in  the  Su- 
perb, a  ship  of  sixty  guns,  in  company  with  the  Lanceston  and 
Mermaid,  of  forty  guns  each.  On  the  same  day,  the  Eltham, 
of  forty  guns,  from  Portsmouth,  reached  the  same  port.  The 
pulses  of  the  provincial  soldiers  beat  quick  and  high,  like  the 
waves  of  that  northern  sea,  when  the  British  flag  was  seen 
floating  from  the  mast  head  of  those  five  sturdy  ships.  Com- 
modore Warren,  after  a  short  conference  with  Colonel  Pep- 
perell,  sailed  for  Louisbourg  harbor.f 

Already  the  few  colonial  ships  and  vessels,  that  had  been 
cruising  there,  had  rendered  important  services  by  seizing 
several  vessels  bound  to  Louisbourg  with  provisions.  They 
had  also   fallen  in  with    the  Renomme,  a  French  ship  of 

*  The  three  hundred  soldiers  from  Rliodo  Island  did  not  reach  Louisbourg 
until  after  its  capture. 

t  Hutchinson, 


[1745]  LANDING  OF  THE  TROOPS.  403 

thirty-six  guns,  bearing  dispatches.  She  kept  up  a  running 
fire  for  awhile  with  the  cruisers,  that  resisted  her  entrance 
into  the  harbor,  and  then  giving  up  the  attempt  as  hopeless, 
she  commenced  her  return  voyage.  As  the  Connecticut 
and  Rhode  Island  troops,  having  farther  to  sail  than  those  of 
the  other  colonies,  were  yet  on  their  passage,  the  Renomme 
met  them  under  convoy  of  their  two  small  sloops,  either  one 
of  which  a  single  broadside  of  her  metal  might  have  sunk; 
yet,  after  saluting  with  a  few  coy  shots  at  a  distance,  and 
doing  some  damage  to  the  Rhode  Island  sloop,  she  prudently 
resumed  her  regular  course.  She  must  have  easily  divined 
that  something  besides  the  coasting  trade  had  set  in  motion 
the  sails  that  swarmed  along  the  coast  in  such  defiant 
array. 

The  fleet  and  army  followed  the  men-of-war,  and  arrived 
safely  in  Chapeaurogue  Bay  on  the  30th  of  April. 

All  this  time  the  enemy  had  remained  in  ignorance  of  the 
attempt  that  was  about  to  be  made  upon  the  garrison. 
Even  the  cruisers  had  not  alarmed  them,  as  they  sup- 
posed them  to  be  engaged  in  the  old  business  of  privateering 
for  fishing  and  trading  vessels.  But  when  early  on  the 
morning  of  the  30th  of  April,  they  looked  off  from  the 
heights  that  commanded  the  town,  and  saw  the  transports 
beating  into  the  bay,  their  eyes  were  opened.  The  governor 
immediately  sent  out  Bouladrie,  with  one  hundred  and  fifty 
disciplined  troops,  to  oppose  the  landing  of  the  enemy.  Gen- 
eral Pepperill  with  much  address  kept  him  employed  while 
he  was  effecting  a  landing  at  another  point.  This  small 
detachment  of  brave  men  was  sadly  cut  in  pieces  at  the 
first  fire.  Bouladrie  soon  found  himself  a  prisoner,  and  the 
remnant  of  his  men  flying,  from  the  invaders  easily  effected 
a  landing.* 

Four  hundred  men,  on  the  following  morning,  screened  by 
the  hills,  marched  to  the  north-east  harbor,  laying  in  ashes 
the  houses  and  stores  that  they  found  in  their  way,  until  they 
had  arrived  within  a  mile  of  the  general  battery.  From  this 
"""  *  Trumbull,  ii.  279. 


404  HISTOEY  OF  CONNECTICUT. 

indiscriminate  conflagration  such  dense  volumes  of  smolce 
arose,  enveloping  the  soldiers  who  kept  close  beneath  its 
shadow,  that  the  enemy,  who  could  only  be  aware  of  the 
advance  of  the  English  by  the  line  of  fire  and  vapor  that 
was  gradually  lengthened  out  below  them,  and  who  believed 
that  the  whole  invading  army  was  approaching,  hastily  threw 
their  powder  into  a  well  and  fled  in  dismay  from  the  bat- 
tery. With  steady  hands  and  bold  hearts,  this  handful  of 
undisciplined  provincials  moved  forward,  and  took  possession 
of  it  without  the  loss  of  a  man.  They  soon  brought  the 
cannon  that  the  enemy  had  left,  to  bear  upon  the  town,  but 
as  the  guns  were  forty-two  pounders  and  consumed  too 
much  powder,  the  firing  was  soon  discontinued.* 

Thus  far  every  thing  had  been  easy  ;  the  labor  was  now 
to  begin.  The  heart  of  the  fortification  was  still  sound  and 
secure.  In  order  to  bring  guns  to  bear  upon  the  main 
works,  it  was  necessary  to  drag  them  a  distance  of  two 
miles,  before  they  could  make  them  available  by  means  of 
fascine  batteries.  To  add  to  the  almost  unsurmountable  diffi- 
culties that  attended  this  task,  a  deep  morass  that  would  not 
sustain  the  weight  of  oxen  or  horses,  stretched  like  a 
Serbonian  bog  between  them  and  the  spot  where  it  was 
necessary  that  these  temporary  batteries  should  be  erected. 
Ignorant  of  the  ordinary  approaches  of  a  besieging  army, 
untaught,  except  in  the  rude  way  that  nature  teaches  her 
-hardiest  sons,  the  provincial  troops  set  themselves  about  the 
work  with  surprising  energy,  performing,  under  cover  of 
darkness,  the  drudgery  fit  only  for  beasts  of  burden,  drag- 
ging heavy  forty-two  pounders,  mortars,  and  timbers  over 
the  trembling  surface  of  the  swamp,  carrying  shot  and  shells 
along  difficult  places,  with  the  same  persistency  that  had 
leveled  the  forests  of  their  fields  and  committed  them  to  the 
crackhng  fire,  and  with  as  Uttle  military  education  as  they 
had  been  in  the  habit  of  employing  in  erecting  cedar  palis- 
ades around  their  border  houses. 

Under  such  discouraging  auspices,  waging  against  nature 
*^Iutchinson,  ii.  374  ;  Trumbull,  ii.  277,  278  ;  Holmes,  ii.  26. 


[1745.]  ARRIVAL   OF   ENGLISH   SHIPS.  405 

and  struggling  against  a  fortified  and  disciplined  enemy,  in 
less  than  twenty  days  they  had  erected  five  fascine  batteries, 
one  of  which  mounted  five  forty-two  pounders. 

While  this  almost  unheard  of  labor  was  going  forward  on 
shore,  the  fleet  was  by  no  means  inactive.  While  cruising  ofT 
the  harbor,  the  Vigilant,  a  French  sixty-four  gun  ship,  was 
met  by  the  Mermaid  whom  she  engaged.  As  the  Mermaid 
was  a  forty-four  gun  ship,  Captain  Douglass  suffered  himself 
to  be  chased  until  he  had  drawn  his  adversary  within  the 
range  of  the  commodore's  guns.  As  soon  as  the  Vigilant 
discovered  her  hopeless  condition  she  struck  her  colors 
without  firing  a  shot.*  Her  fate  was  decisive  of  the 
fate  of  Louisbourg.  She  was  under  the  command  of  the 
Marquis  de  la  Maison  Forte,  a  very  gallant  officer,  and  had 
on  board  five  hundred  and  sixty  men,  with  stores  that  would 
have  enabled  the  fort  to  hold  out  until  a  sufficient  naval 
force  could  have  arrived  from  France  to  have  made  it 
impregnable.  This  easy  victory,  while  it  emboldened  the 
provincial  army,  discouraged  the  garrison  and  hastened 
the  capitulation. 

Just  before  the  arrival  of  the  Vigilant,  it  had  been  pro- 
posed that  the  men-of-war  should  anchor  in  the  bay,  and 
that  the  marines,  and  such  of  the  sailors  as  could  be  spared, 
should  go  ashore  and  help  to  complete  the  batteries.  Had 
this  measure  been  adopted,  the  Vigilant  would  have  entered 
the  harbor,  and  the  fortune  of  the  expedition  would  have 
been  changed. f  But  every  circumstance  seemed  to  favor 
the  success  of  the  invading  army.  Four  days  after  the  Vigi- 
lant had  struck  her  colors,  the  English  fleet  was  augmented 
by  the  arrival  of  two  ships,  the  Princess  Mary  of  sixty, 
and  the  Hector  of  forty  guns.  Shortly  afterwards  came  the 
Canterbury  and  the  Sunderland,  each  of  sixty  guns,  and  the 
Chester  of  fifty  guns — in  all,  eleven  men-of-war,  viz.,  one 
of  sixty-four,  four  of  sixty,  one  of  fifty,  and  five  of  forty 
gmis4 

*  Huteliinson,  ii.  374,  375. 
t  Hutchinson ;  Trumbull,     t  Huteliinson,  ii.  375,  376. 


406  HISTORY  OF   COISTNECTICUT. 

Looking  off  upon  the  waters,  the  garrison  watched  these 
vultures  of  the  sea,  one  after  another  spreading  their  white 
wings  along  the  line  of  the  horizon,  and  pointing  their  beaks 
towards  Chapeaurouge  Bay.  Already  the  island  battery  had 
ceased  to  make  a  regular  response  to  the  shot  and  shells  of 
the  besiegers,  and  was  only  heard  to  reply  at  long  intervals, 
while  the  melancholy  boom  of  its  cannon,  like  a  signal  of 
distress,  echoed  ominously  over  the  ocean. 

Already  the  western  gate  of  the  town  was  shattered  in 
pieces,  and  breaches  had  begun  to  be  visible  in  the  wall. 
The  north-east  battery  was  no  longer  defensible,  and  the  cir- 
cular battery  of  sixteen  guns,  the  only  one  that  could  com- 
mand the  sea  and  defend  the  town  against  ships,  was  a  ruin. 
Besides,  they  had  every  cause  to  expect  that  a  general  attack 
by  sea  and  land  would  soon  overwhelm  the  garrison  and  the 
town.  With  these  necessities  staring  them  in  the  face,  the 
enemy,  on  the  15th  of  June,  begged  for  a  cessation  of  hos- 
tilities that  the  parties  might  agree  upon  some  terms  of 
capitulation.  This  was  granted,  and  on  the  17th  of  June, 
1745,  after  a  siege  of  forty-nine  days,  the  city  of  Louisbourg, 
and  the  Island  of  Cape  Breton,  were  surrendered  into  the 
hands  of  King  George  II.* 

It  is  impossible  to  say  what  would  have  been  the  fate  of 
the  expedition  had  the  garrison  held  out  a  little  longer.  The 
provincial  army  was  already  much  in  want  of  ammunition, 
greatly  reduced  from  the  hardships  that  it  had  encountered 
in  constructing  and  afterwards  manning  the  fascine  bat- 
teries, and  in  lying  upon  the  damp  cold  ground  at  night 
without  tents  that  could  protect  them  from  the  rains  or 
even  from  the  dews. 

General  Pepperell  had  sent  off  dispatches  to  New  England 
for  recruits,  and  fresh  supplies  of  ammunition.  The  demand 
had  been  answered  by  the  colonies  as  well  as  they  were  able, 
and  about  eight  hundred  men,  and  such  munitions  as  could 
be  purchased,  had  been  sent  forward.     Connecticut  voted  to 

*  Bancroft,  Hutchinson,  Holmes,  Trumbull. 


[1745.]  IMPORTANCE   OF  THE   VICTORY.  407 

raise  three  hundred  additional  troops  upon  the  same  terms 
that  had  induced  the  first  regiment  to  enhst.*'  Still,  it  is 
doubtful  whether  this  reinforcement  could  have  reached 
Louisbourg  in  time  to  relieve  the  army.  Nature,  too,  would 
have  conspired  with  the  enemy  to  make  the  situation  of  the 
besiegers  most  dismal  had  the  capitulation  been  postponed 
for  a  single  day. 

On  the  18th  of  June,  there  came  on  a  violent  and  protract- 
ed storm.  For  ten  tedious  days,  it  rained  almost  without  in- 
termission. Had  the  soldiers  been  left  to  the  frail  covering 
of  their  tents,  they  must  have  been  exposed  to  the  most  ex- 
treme hardships,  and  would  perhaps  have  been  compelled  to 
take  refuge  on  board  the  ships.  But  the  houses  of  Louis- 
bourg afforded  quite  a  different  shelter,  where  the  weary 
farmers  had  an  opportunity  to  look  off  upon  the  storm  with 
nothing  to  interrupt  their  serenity,  except  an  occasional 
twinge  of  recollection  that  forced  too  vividly  upon  their 
minds  the  images  of  their  absent  wives  and  daughters,  and 
the  neglected  corn-fields  that  should  supply  them  with  food. 
The  steadiness  and  coolness  manifested  by  the  colonial  troops 
during  this  long  siege,  afforded  a  commentary  upon  the  in- 
stitutions under  which  they  had  been  reared,  that,  had  it  been 
treasured  up  by  the  British  government  as  a  lesson,  might 
have  saved  the  more  bitter  lessons  of  experience  that  were 
to  follow. 

The  intelligence  of  this  wonderful  victory  reached  Bos- 
ton on  the  3rd  of  July,  and  was  received,  with  the  most 
marked  demonstrations  of  joy  throughout  the  colonies. 
Even  those  provinces  that  had  thought  the  project  chimeri- 
cal, and  had  refused  to  join  in  it,  now  generously  offered  to 
share  in  the  expenses  incurred  in  prosecuting  it.  Pennsylva- 
nia appropriated  four  thousand  pounds.  New  Jersey  two 
thousand,  and  New  York  three  thousand  in  money  and 
provisions. t 

Well  might  the  capture  of  Louisbourg  be  regarded  as  an 

*  Colony  Records,  MS.  t  Trumbull,  ii.  280. 


408  HISTORY   OF   CONNECTICUT. 

important  achievement.  It  was  a  fortress  of  great  strength, 
and  France  had  expended  vast  sums  of  money  upon,  it  with  a 
view  of  making  it  the  stronghold  of  her  power  upon  the  Atlan- 
tic coast.  The  town  was  encircled  by  a  wall  about  eighty 
feet  wide,  and  its  ramparts  were  thirty  feet  in  height,  and 
mounted  with  sixty-five  cannon  which  presented  no  slight 
obstacle  to  the  approach  of  a  besieging  army.  The  mouth 
of  the  harbor  was  commanded  by  the  grand  battery  with 
thirty  forty-two  pounders,  and  by  the  island  battery,  with  an 
equal  number  of  twenty-eight  pounders.  There  were  also 
in  the  fortress,  sixteen  mortars,  and  ammunition  and  stores  to 
withstand  a  six  months'  seige.  The  garrison  was  made  up 
of  six  hundred  regulars  and  thirteen  hundred  militia — all 
well  trained  troops.* 

Thus  fortified,  France  had  not  dreamed  that  Louisbourg 
could  fall  a  prey  to  her  old  and  hated  rival,  before  she  could 
send  a  fleet  and  armament  to  relieve  it.  Much  less  had  it 
entered  the  imagination  of  her  most  cautious  statesman  or 
military  leader,  that  without  the  firing  of  a  shot  from  a  British 
ship,  and  without  the  aid  of  a  British  engineer,  an  army  of 
provincial  troops,  undisciplined,  and  not  even  acting  in  ac- 
cordance with  the  expressed  wishes  of  the  English  govern- 
ment, should  have  conceived  and  executed  a  plan  that  would 
have  been  thought  so  impracticable  even  in  the  hands  of  that 
government  itself. 

From  the  first  commencement  of  those  bloody  wars  be- 
tween the  two  powers  for  dominion  over  the  western  hemis- 
phere, no  blow  that  France  had  received  had  penetrated 
so  deeply,  or  inflicted  such  a  rankling  and  immedicable 
wound. 

The  value  of  the  prizes  alone,  amounted  to  about  one 
million  pounds  sterling.  Several  rich  merchantmen  were 
taken  during  the  siege,  and  to  add  to  the  mortification 
resulting  from  the  loss,  some  of  these  ships  were  known  to 
have  been  decoyed  into  Chapeaurouge  Bay  by  the  French 
flag  that  had  been  kept  floating  from  the  fort,  in  the  vain 
+  Hutcliinson. 


[1745.]  SERVICES   OF   CONNECTICUT.  409 

hope  of  gathering  together  a  sufficient  number  of  armed  ves- 
sels to  relieve  the  garrison.* 

New  England  not  only  captured  Louisbourg,  but  for 
eleven  months  the  place  was  entirely  defended  by  New 
England  men.  More  than  five  thousand  colonial  troops 
shared  the  honor  either  of  capturing  or  of  keeping 
possession  of  the  fortress ;  and  the  disease  that  invaded 
the  Enghsh  garrison  a  few  months  after  the  capitula- 
tion,  fell  with   the   heaviest   hand   upon   the   colonies. f 

Connecticut  furnished  for  the  undertaking  about  eleven 
hundred  men.  The  expenses  incurred  in  fitting  out  these 
men,  and  the  wages  that  were  paid  them,  came  from  the 
treasury  of  the  colony.  Connecticut  petitioned  the  king  to 
make  her  good  for  the  money  thus  laid  out,  or  to  allow  her 
to  share  in  the  prizes  that  had  been  taken  during  the  expedi- 
tion. Her  prayer  was  disregarded,  and  she  submitted  to  the 
loss  in  silence. J 

The  effect  of  this  enterprise  upon  the  two  nations  inter- 
ested in  it,  was  what  might  have  been  readily  anticipated. 
England,  anxious  to  shun  the  burden  while  she  claimed  the 
glory  of  the  victory,  again  resumed  her  old  scheme — the  re- 
duction of  Canada — and  resolved  to  sweep  from  the  western 
continent  the  last  vestige  of  French  dominion.  On  the  oth- 
er hand,  France,  stung  to  madness  at  the  blow,  determined 
to  retrieve  what  she  had  thus  ingloriously  lost,  and  to  add  to 
her  self-vindication,  the  consolations  of  revenge,  by  ranging 
the  whole  coast  from  Nova  Scotia  to  Georgia. 

*  Holmes,  ii.  27 ;  Col.  Mass.  Hist.  See,  i.  4,  60  ;  Douglass,  i.  336  ;  Belknap's 
Hist.  N.  Hamp.,  ii.  193,  224.  f  Hutchinson. 

i  Our  records  contain  frequent  requests  to  the  colonial  agent  in  England,  to 
petition  for,  and  receive  the  money  to  reimburse  the  colony  for  her  heavy  expen- 
ses in  said  expedition;  and  in  October,  1748,  the  agent  is  desired  to  obtain  "a 
speedy  payment  of  the  money  granted  to  us  by  Parliament^  for  that  purpose. 
It  would  seem,  however,  that  the  money  was  never  received.  This  is  more  to  be 
wondered  at  from  the  fact  that  £183,649,  2s,  Id,  granted  by  Parliament  for  the 
purposes  of  reimbursement,  arrived  in  Boston.  It  consisted  of  215  chests,  each, 
containing  3,000  pieces  of  eight,  and  100  casks  of  coined  copper.  There  were  17 
cart  and  truck  loads  of  silver,  and  10  truck  loads  of  copper.  Mass.  Hist.  Soc.  Coll. 
This  may  have  all  been  designed  for  Massachusetts,  and  used  by  her. 


410  HISTORY  OF  CONNECTICUT. 

Animated  by  such  motives,  the  two  powers  set  themselves 
to  perfect  the  enterprise  that  each  had  planned. 

It  was  decided  by  the  British  government,  that  eight  bat- 
talions of  regular  troops  should  meet  at  Louisbourg  the 
forces  to  be  raised  in  New  England,  and  with  a  squadron 
under  Admiral  Warren,  proceed  up  the  St.  Lawrence  to 
Quebec ;  while  another  army  from  New  York  and  the  other 
colonies,  as  far  south  as  Virginia,  should  rendezvous  at  Al- 
bany, and  under  the  command  of  Governor  St.  Clair,  march 
across  the  country  to  Montreal.  No  specified  number  of 
soldiers  was  required  to  be  raised  by  any  of  the  colonies,  but 
it  was  thought  best,  in  a  cause  where  all  were  interested,  to 
leave  it  to  the  magnanimity  and  emulation  of  each.  It  was, 
however,  intimated  that  the  proportion  of  troops  to  be  furn- 
ished from  the  provinces,  should  be  at  least  five  thousand 
men.  New  England  herself  raised  five  thousand  three  hun- 
dred soldiers ;  New  York  and  the  other  colonies,  two  thou- 
sand nine  hundred.  Of  the  number  raised  by  New  Eng- 
land, Connecticut  furnished  one  thousand  fighting  men.* 
Such  was  the  anxiety  to  accomplish  this  darling  project,  that 
the  General  Assembly  of  Connecticut  was  convoked  imme- 
diately after  the  intentions  of  the  government  had  been  made 
known,  and  a  bounty  of  thirty  pounds  was  voted  to  every 
soldier  who  would  enlist.  It  was  also  resolved,  that  if  provis- 
ions could  not  be  had  without,  they  should  be  impressed.f 

When  we  reflect  that  the  members  of  the  assembly  were, 
by  such  a  vote,  exposing  their  own  property  to  the  same  liabili- 
ties as  that  of  their  neighbors,  and  that  the  public  sentiment 
would  sustain  such  an  order  without  compromising  the  popu- 
larity of  the  members,  we  see  the  reverence  for  law,  and  the 
manly  spirit  of  self-sacrifice  that  has  always  characterized 
our  people. 

*  The  numbers  of  soldiers  voted  to  bo  raised  by  the  difFereut  colonies  were  very 
unequal,  (as  follows:) — New  Hampshire,  500;  Massachusetts,  3,500;  Rhode 
Island,  300;  Connecticut,  1,000;  New  York,  1,600;  New  Jersey,  500;  Mary- 
land, 300  ;  Virginia,  100  ;  Pennsylvania,  400. 

t  Colony  Records,  MS. 


[1746.]  PREPARATIONS   FOR   WAR.  411 

In  six  weeks  from  the  time  when  the  preparations  began, 
our  troops  were  ready  to  embark. 

At  the  same  time,  a  formidable  armament  was  being  pre- 
pared at  Portsmouth,  under  the  command  of  Richard 
Lestock,  admiral  of  the  blue,  with  transports  carrying  six 
regiments  te  act  in  concert  with  the  colonial  army ;  but  such 
was  the  delay  that  attended  the  fitting  out  of  the  fleet,  that 
when  it  was  ready  to  sail,  it  was  too  late  in  the  season  to 
venture  upon  the  Atlantic  coast.  It  sailed  to  the  coast  of 
Brittany,  in  the  hope  of  surprising  the  port  of  L'Orient,  and 
taking  possession  of  the  military  stores  and  ships  of  the 
French  East  India  Company,  but  was  able  to  do  but  little 
harm  to  the  enemy.* 

France  made  every  exertion  not  to  be  outdone  in  the 
magnitude  of  her  preparations.  The  Duke  D'Anville,  the 
leader  of  the  enterprise,  and  a  nobleman  of  high  character 
and  courage,  soon  sailed  for  the  north  Atlantic  coast,  with  a 
flieet  consisting  of  eleven  ships  of  the  line,  thirty  smaller 
ships  and  vessels,  and  transports,  with  more  than  three  thou- 
sand land  forces  on  board,  who  were  to  meet  at  Nova  Scotia, 
with  sixteen  hundred  French  and  Indians  from  Canada. 
The  fleet  and  armament  sailed  from  France  on  the  22d  of 
June.  An  express  was  dispatched  to  Monsieur  Conflans, 
who  had  been  sent  to  Carthagena,  with  three  ships  of  the 
line  and  a  frigate,  as  a  convoy  of  some  trading  vessels,  or- 
dered him  to  join  the  Duke  at  Chebucto.f 

On  account  of  adverse  winds  and  other  causes  of  delay, 
the  Duke  D'Anville,  did  not  pass  the  Western  Islands  until 
the  3d  of  August.  On  the  24th  of  August,  while  yet  three 
hundred  leagues  from  Nova  Scotia,  one  of  his  largest  ships 
proved  so  unseaworthy  that  he  was  obliged  to  commit  her  to 
the  flames.  On  the  1st  of  September,  there  came  on  a  ter- 
rible storm,  that  so  deranged  the  Mars  and  the  Alcide,  (both 
eighty-four  gun  ships,)  that  they  were  compelled  to  retire 
to  the  West  Indies.  Pestilence  aided  the  winds ;  and  soon 
after,  the  Ardent,  another  sixty-four  gun  ship,  put  back  into 

*  Hutchinson.  +  Hutchinson  ;  Trumbull ;  Bancroft,  &c. 


412  HISTORY   OF   CONNECTICUT. 

Brest,  on  account  of  an  epidemic  that  prevailed  among  the 
crew. 

On  the  12th  of  September,  the  Duke  finally  reached 
Chebucto  in  the  ship  Northumberland,  with  only  one  ship  of 
the  line,  the  Renomme,  and  three  or  four  transports.  A 
single  ship  had  arrived  there  before  him,  and  the  rest  had 
been  scattered,  he  knew  not  where,  by  the  fury  of  the  ele- 
ments. Monsieur  Conflans,  who  had,  according  to  orders, 
arrived  there  in  August,  and  had  looked  in  vain,  for  the  fleet 
had  already  sailed  for  France.* 

Little  did  the  colonies  dream,  while  they  were  making 
such  active  preparations  to  invade  Canada,  that  France  was 
fitting  out  such  an  armament  to  overwhelm  the  whole  coast. 
Therefore,  when  the  fishermen  who  had  fled  from  Chebucto 
on  the  appearance  of  Conflans,  reported  at  Boston  the  arriv- 
al of  a  French  fleet,  their  story  gained  little  credence. 
Early  in  September,  however,  it  was  reported  at  Boston, 
from  a  source  that  could  not  be  questioned,  that  a  large 
French  fleet  had  sailed  for  America.  Soon  after,  there  were 
flying  rumors  that  a  great  fleet  had  been  seen  to  the  west- 
ward of  Newfoundland.  Still,  it  was  hoped  that  this  was 
the  English  fleet.  On  the  28th  of  September,  an  express 
boat  brought  intelligence  that  it  was  the  French  fleet.  It 
was  said  to  consist  of  fourteen  ships  of  the  line,  and  twenty 
smaller  armed  vessels,  and  that  it  had  on  board  eight  thousand 
troops. t 

Ignorant  of  the  injuries  that  the  Duke  D'Anville  had  sus- 
tained at  sea,  and  believing  that  he  had  come  with  his  entire 
fleet  and  armament,  the  colonies  were  thrown  into  consterna- 
tion by  this  intelligence.  They  soon,  however,  recovered 
their  self-possession  and  exerted  themselves  to  the  utmost  to 
defend  the  coast.  In  a  few  days,  more  than  six  thousand  of 
the  inland  militia  were  brought  into  Boston  to  reinforce  the 
town.  As  many  more  were  in  readiness  to  go  as  soon  as 
their  presence  might  be  required.  Anxiously  did  the  colonies 
await  the  coming  of  the  English  fleet. 

*  Hutchinson,  ii.  383,  384.  t  Hutchinson,  ii.  382. 


[1746.]       DEATH   OF   d'ANVILLE   AND   d'ESTOUENELLE.         413 

The  proud  Duke  D'Anville  meanwhile  looked  with  a  vain 
longing  for  the  scattered  members  of  his  fleet.  After  re- 
maining for  four  days  at  Chebucto  in  a  state  of  intense  fever- 
ish excitement,  and  finding  himself  still  in  the  same  hopeless 
condition,  he  took  leave  of  a  world  that  appeared  to  have 
disappointed  the  hopes  that  made  existence  dear  to  him. 
Whether  he  died  of  apoplexy  occasioned  by  chagrin,  or  from 
poison  administered  by  his  own  hand,  was  never  satisfactori- 
ly ascertained.  He  died  in  the  morning,  and  in  the  after- 
noon of  the  same  day,  his  Vice  Admiral,  D'Estournelle,  with 
four  ships  of  the  line,  came  into  port.  His  men  were  feeble, 
and  unfit  for  duty.  After  he  had  learned  the  sudden  death 
of  his  superior  officer,  the  departure  of  Conflans,  and  the  loss 
of  some  of  the  best  ships  belonging  to  the  fleet,  he  called  a 
council  of  the  officers,  and  proposed  that  they  should  return 
to  France.  But  Monseiur  de  la  Jonquiere,  the  Governor  of 
Canada,  who  was  on  board,  and  the  next  in  command,  firmly 
opposed  the  proposition.  Fresh  air  and  wholesome  food,  he 
said,  would  soon  recruit  the  men,  and  they  had  still  force 
enough  left  to  reduce  Annapolis  and  Nova  Scotia,  and  that 
there  would  be  time  enough  to  decide  whether  they  should 
spend  the  winter  in  Canso  Bay,  or  return  home.  This  coun- 
sel prevailed  after  a  debate  of  eight  hours.  Enraged  at  this 
rejection  of  his  advice,  D'Estournelle  was  thrown  into  a 
malignant  fever,  and  in  the  deUrium  occasioned  by  the  mala- 
dy, he  stabbed  himself* 

Jonquiere,  now  chief  in  command,  bent  all  his  energies  to 
carry  out  the  plan  that  had  resulted  in  the  death  of  the  Vice 
Admiral.  The  better  to  recruit  his  troops,  he  ordered  them 
to  go  ashore,  where  the  Acadians  and  Indians  did  everything 
in  their  power  to  relieve  their  sufferings.  But  dysenteries 
and  fevers  swept  off  hundreds  of  them.  It  was  estimated 
that  one-third  of  the  Nova  Scotia  Indians  died  of  the  disea- 
ses communicated  by  the  French  troops. 

A  singular  incident  defeated  the  plan  of  Jonquiere.     Gov- 

*  Belknap,  N.  Hamp.  ii.  c,  20;  Adams,  N".  Eng.  210;  Hutchinson,  ii.  384; 
Holmes,  ii.  30. 


414  HISTORY   OF   CONNECTICUT. 

ernor  Shirley,  in  the  belief  that  he  had  received  positive  in- 
telligence of  the  sailing  of  the  English  fleet,  sent  off  an  ex- 
press to  inform  Admiral  Lestock,  at  Louisbourg,  of  the  state 
of  affairs  in  America.  On  the  11th  of  October,  the  express- 
packet  was  captured  by  the  French  and  carried  into  Chebuc- 
to.  Her  errand  was  made  known  to  the  French  officers, 
and  so  alarmed  them  that  it  was  thought  advisable  to 
sail  immediately  for  France,  without  attempting  to  strike  a 
blow.* 

On  the  15th  of  October,  another  fearful  storm  came  on, 
and  again  the  fleet  was  scattered.  Only  about  one  half  of 
the  army  ever  returned,  and  several  of  the  ships  were  de- 
stroyed.! Thus  ended  in  shipwreck  and  chagrin  this 
haughty  attempt  upon  the  British  colonies. 

The  capture  of  Louisbourg  and  the  discomfiture  of  the 
French  fleet  by  our  army,  that  could  not  be  subdued  by 
human  enemies,  had  thus  prepared  the  way  for  the  peace  of 
Aix  la  Chapelle,  that  gave  England  an  opportunity  to  recover 
from  the  effects  of  the  rebellion  that  had  now  ended  in  the 
defeat  of  the  Pretender,  and  gave  her  colonies  liberty  to 
throw  off"  again  the  shackles  of  debts  that  they  had  incurred 
in  the  war. 

Connecticut  had  been  compelled  to  issue  bills  of  credit  to 
the  amount  of  eighty  thousand  pounds.  It  was  many  years 
before  she  could  redeem  them.  The  existence  of  troubles 
at  home,  was  the  alleged  cause  of  the  neglect  with  which  the 
British  government  treated  the  colonies  at  a  time  when 
they  were  threatened  with  total  destruction.  Thus  robbed 
in  peace,  and  left  to  the  tender  mercies  of  their  enemies  in 
times  of  danger,  the  hearts  of  the  colonists  were  gradually 
alienated  from  the  mother  country. 

*  Hutcliinson,  ii.  384,  385.  +  Hutchinson,  ii.  385. 


CHAPTER  XX. 

EAELT  MANNERS  AND  CUSTOMS  OP  CONNECTICUT. 

It  may  be  a  relief  alike  to  the  reader  and  the  author  to 
take  a  short  leave  of  the  more  rapid  current  of  historical 
narrative,  and  linger  awhile  where  the  waters,  without  los- 
ing their  vitality,  sleep  tranquilly  with  the  image  of  bank 
and  tree  resting  upon  their  surface.  When  we  read 
over  a  detailed  account  of  the  stirring  events  that  make  up 
what  is  ordinarily  called  history,  we  are  apt  to  attribute  to 
those  events,  and  to  the  principal  men  who  participated  in 
them,  an  importance  that  does  not  belong  to  them.  No  one 
man,  whatever  may  be  his  natural  endowments,  is  so  far 
in  advance  of  his  age,  as  his  contemporaries  believe  him  to 
be.  Let  us  say,  rather,  that  he  is  the  expression,  the  utter- 
ance, of  that  deep,  unconscious  power  that  quickens  the 
bosom  and  animates  the  features  of  his  generation,  as  the 
wind-harp  gives  out  to  the  ear  the  rich  harmonies  that  before 
floated  voiceless  in  the  elements.  The  fibre  of  silk  that  you 
suspend  in  your  window-frame,  in  the  one  case,  and  the  hero, 
the  great  poet,  the  lawgiver  who  discloses  new  principles  of 
civil  polity,  in  the  other,  are  each  the  accident  that  makes 
audible  the  musical  cadences  that  are  always  waiting  to  be 
revealed  to  man.  Hence,  Shakspeare  and  Bacon  are  the 
voices  that  express  the  magnificent  era  in  British  history  that 
united  so  much  of  the  grandeur  of  the  middle  ages  with  the 
demonstrative,  analytical  power  that  was  to  follow  it. 
Hence,  Milton  and  Cromwell,  as  unlike  each  other  as  men 
could  well  be,  spoke,  shall  I  not  rather  say,  prophesied — the 
one  of  the  elevated  tone  of  philosophy,  polity,  and  religion, 
the  other  of  the  revolutionary  tendencies  of  the  century  that 
was  to  build  the  fabric  of  society  upon  a  new  basis,  that  at 
the  end  of  two  hundred  years  still  remains  unshaken. 


416  HISTORY   OF   CONNECTICUT. 

If  these  remarks  are  correct,  it  becomes  us  to  turn  our 
attention  not  only  to  the  Ludlows,  the  Winthrops,  the  Wol- 
cotts,  and  the  Wyllyses,  of  Connecticut,  but  to  those  men, 
equally  manly  and  bold,  many  of  whom  left  homes  as  com- 
fortable, though  less  known  to  history,  and  associations  as 
tender  as  theirs,  to  accompany  them  into  self-exile  and  sub- 
mit to  hardships  such  as  are  not  known  to  our  day,  and 
magnified  ten-fold  by  the  dark  uncertainties  that  attended 
them.  Nor  should  we  lose  sight  of  those  noble-hearted  Eng- 
lish women,  who  found  in  their  natures  room  for  the  cultiva- 
tion of  the  domestic  virtues  and  for  the  devoutest  love  of 
God,  who  spurned  the  weaknesses  that  seem  to  add  to  the 
charms  of  the  sex  in  times  of  peace,  who  met  the  worst 
dangers  with  calmness,  and  who  shed  no  tears  except  for 
others. 

In  the  lives  of  these  fearless  men  and  women  who  have 
left  no  marks  to  distinguish  them  beyond  the  few  letters  that 
designate  upon  the  records  when  they  were  born,  when  they 
were  married,  and  when  they  died ;  or  beyond  the  brown 
slab  placed  over  the  spot  where  long  ago  their  bones  crum- 
bled into  the  mould — a  slab  with  its  rough  symbols  and 
"shapeless  sculpture" — are  we  to  look  for  the  courage  that 
subdued  the  forest  and  its  terrible  inhabitants,  the  fortitude 
that  bore  up  against  the  heavy  burdens  of  life,  the  spontane- 
ous sentiment  of  liberty  that  aroused  them  to  resist  the 
aggressions  of  the  French  and  the  insolence  of  Cornbury 
and  Andross.  In  raising  the  monumental  stone  that  is  to 
bear  the  name  of  some  great  hero  or  statesman,  let  us  look 
upon  the  shaft  as  commemorating  not  so  much  the  virtues  of 
an  individual  as  of  a  whole  people. 

It  has  been  thought  by  many  who  have  had  little  opportu- 
nity or  desire  to  form  correct  estimates  of  the  people  of 
Connecticut,  that  they  sprung  from  a  low  and  vulgar  parent- 
age. The  want  of  monuments  over  the  graves  of  most  of 
them,  the  humble  houses  that  they  dwelt  in,  the  plain  cloth- 
ing that  they  wore,  and  strange  to  tell,  the  fact  that  they 
almost  all  labored  with  their  hands,  have  been  seized  upon  as 


FIRST  PLANTERS   OF   CONNECTICUT.  417 

SO  many  marks  that  they  came  from  the  undistinguishable 
crowd  of  EngHsh  peasantry,  whose  fathers,  from  age  to  age, 
had  been  the  lowest  subjects  of  feudal  villeiny.  Never  was  a 
conclusion  more  hastily  formed,  or  supported  by  so  few  facts. 
Indeed,  all  the  analogies  that  are  within  our  reach  tend  to 
a  contrary  result.  The  early  planters  of  Connecticut  were 
neither  serfs  nor  the  sons  of  serfs.  So  far  from  this  were 
many  of  them,  that  they  could  trace  their  descent  backward 
through  the  line  of  the  knights  and  gentlemen  of  England, 
by  means  of  the  heralds'  visitations,  parish  records,  and 
county  genealogies,  to  say  nothing  of  those  family  pedigrees 
that  were  often  transmitted,  as  heirlooms,  from  generation  to 
generation,  particularly  in  the  line  of  the  eldest  sons,  to  a 
remote  day,  and  some  of  them  to  that  wavering  horizon  where 
history  loses  itself  in  fable.  Thus  it  turns  out  upon  inves- 
tigation, that  many  a  tomb  that  holds  the  dust  of  some 
pioneer  whose  memory  is  now  cherished  by  a  numerous  pos- 
terity, yet  cannot  be  distinguished  from  the  surrounding  earth, 
simply  because  no  monument  was  placed  above  it  to  mark 
the  spot,  w^as  entitled  from  the  birth  of  its  tenant,  to  be  gar- 
nished with  a  coat  of  arms  among  the  most  honorable  of 
those  that  swell  the  volumes  of  heraldry,  with  devices  to 
modern  republican  eyes  so  quaint  and  strange.*  But  what 
had  they,  who  had  spent  their  lives  in  waging  war  with 
the  formularies  of  the  past  time  that  appeared  so  irksome  to 
them— what  had  men  who  made  it  a  part  of  their  education 
to  discard  the  factitious  distinctions  of  the  world, — to  do  with 
the  gauntleted  hand,  the  helmeted  brow,  the  griffins,  the 
lions,  the  strawberries  and  the  storks  of  the  herald's  college  ? 
The  very  fact  that  most  of  these  symbols  suggested  to  the 
mind  the  myths  of  paganism  and  idolatry,  would  of  itself 

*  From  actual  examination  it  appears  that  more  than  four-fifths  of  the  early 
landed  proprietors  of  Hartford,  Wethersfield,  and  Windsor,  belonged  to  families 
that  had  arms  granted  to  them  in  Great  Britain.  Other  settlers  in  various  parts 
of  Connecticut,  at  an  early  or  later  day,  bearing  family  names  that  appear  never  to 
have  borne  arms,  are  believed  to  have  been  descended  from  the  landed  gentry  or 
other  genteel  English  families,  such  as  Chittenden,  Ingersoll,  Pitkin,  Silliman, 
Lyman,  Olmsted,  Upson,  Cullick,  Treadwell. 

27 


418  HISTORY  OF   CONNECTICUT. 

make  them  objects  of  suspicion  to  many  of  the  more  strict 
order  of  puritans. 

Besides,  not  only  their  religion,  but  their  very  physical 
condition,  made  it  difficult  for  them  to  cherish  with  much 
care  any  thing  that  was  not  obviously  connected  with  the 
great  business  of  life.  The  ax  of  the  planter,  as  its  biting 
edge  penetrated  deeper  and  deeper  into  the  vitals  of  the  for- 
est, letting  in  the  sunbeams  to  scare  away  the  deer  that 
roamed  over  the  parks  that  had  no  palings  or  gates,  other 
than  the  natural  barriers  of  river,  mountain,  or  ocean,  while 
it  strengthened  the  hand  of  him  who  wielded  it  and  carved 
his  individuality  upon  the  stumps  of  oak  or  pine,  to  remain 
there  after  he  should  have  been  laid  to  rest,  was  yet  no  fit- 
ting instrument  to  record  the  vanity  of  the  past  time.  What 
had  he  to  do  with  the  past  ?  Tne  grim  present  was  low- 
ering upon  him  with  all  its  sharp  and  angular  realities.  In- 
dians, wild  beasts,  famine,  cold,  the  diseases  that  lurk  along 
the  borders  of  new  settlements,  the  French,  the  Dutch,  the 
devil,  and  all  the  other  calamities,  actual  or  imaginary,  that 
kept  his  faculties  constantly  stretched  to  their  highest  ten- 
sion, gave  him  little  time  to  look  backward.  Life,  to  a  pur- 
itan, was  a  warfare,  commencing  with  the  dawn  of  his  own 
existence,  to  be  waged  with  a  stout  heart  and  steady  hand 
until  that  existence  should  be  lost  in  a  future,  boundless  and 
eternal.  Little  time  had  he  for  the  soft  reverie  and  day- 
dreaming that  belong  to  a  stage  of  society  that  blends  inter- 
nal culture  with  easy  circumstances  and  leisure-loving 
retirement.  His  business  was  to  work.  Other  men  retreated 
from  the  world  to  avoid  its  cares ;  he  fled  to  the  solitudes  of 
nature  to  begin  life  anew.  I  do  not  mean  to  say  that  this 
was  universally  true.  A  few  families  from  old  ties,  not 
easily  sundered,  binding  them  to  the  country  of  their  birth, 
still  kept  up  a  communication  with  the  past ;  but  even  in 
these  exceptional  instances  it  was  lost  in  a  few  generations, 
and  has  only  been  revived  within  the  last  century,  by  resort- 
ing to  the  English  repositories  of  such  facts.  I  know  this 
to  be  the  case  in  all  families  now  in  New  England  that  are 


THE   FIEST  PLANTERS   OF   CONNECTICUT.  419 

able  to  give  any  accurate  history  of  their  lineage,  extend- 
ing beyond  the  first  emigrants.  Even  the  most  illustrious 
names  in  our  history,  though  readily  traced  in  England,  have 
been  neglected  to  a  degree  that  could  not  be  accounted  for 
by  any  one  who  should  fail  to  keep  in  view  the  motives  that 
actuated  the  emigrants,  the  necessities  that  surrounded  them, 
the  almost  incredible  amount  of  labor  that  they  performed, 
and  the  estimate  that  they  placed  upon  this  life  and  the  next. 

I  have  said  that  the  first  English  planters  of  Connecticut 
were  of  no  vulgar  origin.  Many  of  them  were  poor,  many 
of  them  when  they  sailed  for  America  were  in  the  more 
humble  walks  of  life ;  but  the  planters,  the  substantial  land 
holders,  who  began  to  plant  those  "  three  vines  in  the  wil- 
derness," sprung  from  the  better  classes,  and  a  large  propor- 
tion of  them  from  the  landed  gentry  of  England.  This  fact 
is  proved  not  only  by  tracing  individual  families,  but  by  the 
very  names  that  those  founders  of  our  republic  bore.  Any 
one  who  choses  to  look  at  the  catalogue  of  good  old  Eng- 
lish names  that  will  be  found  at  the  close  of  this  voulme,  and 
compare  it  with  any  well  arranged  book  of  general  heraldry, 
will  see  that  they  had  either  stolen  their  names,  or  that  they 
were  honorably  descended.  The  first  emigrants,  it  is  true, 
brought  with  them  many  servants,  but  most  of  them  were 
so  from  temporary  causes,  and  were  as  unlike  the  stolid 
English  laborer  who  then  tilled,  as  his  father  and  grandfa- 
ther had  done  before  him,  the  fields  of  the  opulent  English 
landholder,  as  the  seventeenth  century  was  unlike  the 
twelfth. 

This  large  infusion  of  the  blood  of  the  better  class  of 
English  families  might  lead,  were  it  philosophically  consid- 
ered, to  an  explanation  of  much  that  has  been  thought  to  be 
new  and  peculiar  in  our  institutions  and  our  people.  I 
should  hardly  expect  to  be  contradicted  by  any  well  informed 
genealogist  either  in  England  or  America,  were  I  to  express 
my  behef  that  there  is  hardly  a  man  now  living  whose 
descent  can  be  traced  to  the  early  planters  of  Connecticut, 
who  will  not  be  found  to  be  derived,  through  one  branch  or 


420  HISTORY  OF   CONNECTICUT. 

another  of  his  pedigree,  from  those  families  who  helped  to 
frame  the  British  constitution,  who  elaborated  by  slow 
degrees  the  common  law,  who  advocated  the  doctrines  of 
both  with  their  tongues  and  their  pens,  or  defended  them 
with  their  swords. 

But  it  may  not  be  clear  to  every  mind  how  it  happened  that 
the  early  planters,  if  they  were  of  such  good  descent,  should 
have  submitted  to  the  most  menial  labors  in  an  age  when 
the  gentry  were,  much  more  than  now,  a  non-producing 
class.  I  reply  that  they  were  driven  to  it  by  the  sternest 
necessity.  They  were  poor;  many  of  them  had  made  great 
sacrifices  to  remove  their  families  and  their  friends  to  Amer- 
ica. Laborers  were  few,  and  they  had  no  money  to  trans- 
port them  in  such  numbers  as  were  needed  in  a  new  coun- 
try, to  subdue  the  lands  and  render  them  habitable.  Most 
of  all,  they  were  in  want  of  mechanics.  They  needed 
houses  to  screen  them  from  the  weather,  they  must  be  pro- 
vided with  cloth,  which  they  could  not  import,  and  that 
cloth  must  be  made  into  garments.  Their  horses  could  not 
go  afield,  or  from  town  to  town  unshod  ;  nor  could  their  sons 
and  daughters  live  without  shoes.  From  these  stern  neces- 
sities they  learned  the  dignity  of  labor.  If  they  could  not 
procure  carpenters,  blacksmiths,  shoemakers,  weavers,  and 
clothiers,  in  any  other  manner,  it  was  evident  that  they  must 
learn  these  several  employments  themselves,  and  teach  them 
to  their  children.  They  found  themselves  obliged  to  fell  the 
trees  and  till  the  grounds,  that  they  might  have  bread.  The 
best  planters,  therefore,  could  find  nothing  degrading  in  the 
use  of  the  ax  or  the  plow.  Besides,  their  religion  and  hab- 
itudes of  mind  taught  them  to  look  with  reverence  rather 
than  with  scorn  upon  all  the  useful  occupations  of  life,  as 
tending  to  help  forward  the  human  soul  upon  a  journey,  at 
the  close  of  which  it  was  to  be  invested  with  a  robe  of 
white  and  adorned  with  a  crown  of  gold. 

Some  of  them  had  anticipated  this,  and  had  learned  to  prac- 
tise some  useful  art  or  mystery,  either  before  leaving  England, 
or  while  in  Holland  or  Germany.     Hence,  Henry  Wolcott, 


THE   EARLY   GOVERNORS.  .  421 

whose  ancestors  could  be  traced  back  as  far  as  the  reign  of 
WilHam  the  Conqueror,  does  not  appear  to  have  withheld  his 
daughter's  hand  from  Mathew  Griswold,  because  he  was  a 
stone-cutter  and  made  monuments  for  the  few  who  chose  to 
retain  a  custom  that  Welles,  Leete,  and  the  whole  Wyllys 
family  appear  to  have  despised.  Roger  Wolcott,  too,  a 
grandson  of  the  emigrant,  and  himself  the  first  of  the  line  of 
governors  bearing  that  name,  a  man  of  letters  and  elevated 
views,  was  proud  to  labor  in  the  field  as  a  husbandman,  and 
on  rainy  days  and  in  the  long  winter  evenings,  to  fill  up  the 
intervals  of  study  in  plying  the  shuttle  that  his  bright-eyed 
sons  and  rosy-cheeked  daughters  might  be  warmly  clad. 
Governor  Webster,  and  Governor  Wells,  if  they  did  not  la- 
bor with  their  own  hands,  taught  their  sons  to  toil.  Governor 
Leete,  at  the  very  time  that  he  discharged  the  duties  of  chief 
magistrate  of  the  colony,  and  while  he  was  secreting  the  re- 
gicides at  his  house,  kept  a  country  store  for  the  accommoda- 
tion of  his  neighbors,  and  for  many  years  earned  a  livelihood 
by  keeping  the  records  of  Guilford.  His  sons  were,  it  is  be- 
lieved, all  taught  to  work  in  the  field.  Governor  Treat  was 
as  well  skilled  in  the  mysteries  of  plowing  a  corn-field,  or 
mowing  a  hay-field,  as  in  fighting  the  battles  of  the  colony, 
or  defending  her  charter.  His  father,  Richard  Treat,  a 
patentee  named  in  the  charter,  and  one  of  the  first  gentle- 
men in  the  colony,  daily  crossed  the  Connecticut  river  in  a 
boat,  and  lent  his  strong  muscles  to  the  task  of  breaking  up 
the  fallow  land  of  Glastenbury.  Winthrop  submitted  to  the 
severest  hardships  in  removing  from  Boston  to  Pequot  (now 
New  London,)  in  going  from  place  to  place  to  exercise  the 
functions  of  a  magistrate,  in  acting  as  mediator  between  con- 
tending parties,  in  procuring  land  titles  and  defending  them 
for  himself  and  for  others,  in  purchasing  mines,  in  perform- 
ing the  office  of  physician,  to  say  nothing  of  the  burdens  of 
public  life.  For  these  services  he  did  not  scruple  to  receive 
a  fair  compensation.  If  he  did  not  labor  with  his  hands,  we 
may  presume  from  what  we  know  of  his  character,  that  it 
was  from  no  fear  of  soiling  them,  but  merely  because  his 


422  HISTOEY   OF   CONNECTICUT. 

time  was  worth  more  in  other  departments  of  usefulness. 
Governor  Law  spent  a  portion  of  his  time  in  the  cultivation 
of  his  plantation. 

I  could  multiply  instances  of  names  and  individuals  whose 
fame  will  not  die  while  history  has  a  niche  still  remaining 
for  the  statues  of  the  fathers  of  the  republic.  I  need  only 
say,  that  high  or  low,  through  all  the  grades  of  society,  labor 
was  respectable,  while  idleness  and  vice  were,  as  they  have 
always  been  in  every  well  regulated  government,  looked 
upon  with  suspicion. 

Thus  frugal,  industrious,  honest,  the  fathers  of  the  colony 
were  unconsciously  laying  the  foundation  of  a  structure,  im- 
perishable because  built  in  accordance  with  the  eternal  laws 
of  God's  truth — imperishable,  I  mean,  unless  the  indolence 
and  hollow  pretensions  of  their  descendants  shall  dismantle 
its  walls,  and  leave  its  solid  frame-work  to  the  injurious  ac- 
tion of  the  elements.  No  people  that  hold  labor  in  derision 
can  maintain  its  position  for  three  centuries.  No  servitude 
is  so  debasing,  as  that  which  nature  is  keeping  in  reserve  for 
the  descendants  of  a  people  who  studiously  inculcate  in  the 
minds  of  their  children  that  it  is  better  to  be  idle  and  hungry 
than  to  earn  an  honest  livelihood  by  work. 

Are  we  to  infer,  then,  from  the  fact  that  physical  labor  was 
cherished  by  all  classes  of  our  ancestors  with  such  care — ■ 
are  we  to  infer  that  they  had  no  grades,  no  distinctions,  in 
their  social  fabric  ?  So  far  was  this  from  being  the  case, 
that  I  have  found  in  the  records  of  no  people  worthy  to  be 
called  civilized,  the  internal  evidences  of  grade  and  rank  ad- 
justed more  carefully  than  can  be  traced  in  the  files  and 
books  of  the  early  documentary  history  of  our  own  colony.  It 
may  be  interesting  to  the  reader  to  know  into  what  classes 
and  grades  society  was  divided. 

1.  The  title  of  ''Honorable"  was  entirely  unknown  in  our 
colonial  records  until  1685,  and  was  subsequently  for  many 
years  applied  only  to  the  governor,  and  seldom  to  him.  Pre- 
vious to  that  date,  however,  the  chief  magistrate  was  some- 
times designated  as  "our  Worshipful  Governor,"  and  "our 


EAELY  TITLES  IN  CONNECTICUT.  423 

Honored  Governor."  Similar  titles  were  also  occasionally 
given  to  the  Deputy  Governor.* 

The  next  title  was  that  of  "Esquire,"  employed  very 
sparingly  for  the  first  century  after  the  emigration,  and  hav- 
ing about  the  same  signification  that  it  had  in  England,  in 
the  times  of  Elizabeth  and  James  I.  Those  who  had  been 
possessed  of  landed  estates  in  England,  and  had  been  liber- 
ally educated,  younger  sons  of  the  nobility,  and  the  sons  of 
baronets  and  knights,  were  addressed  in  writing  by  the  addi- 
tion of  esquire,  placed  after  the  name  and  before  or  after 
that  of  the  place  of  residence.  When  addressed  colloquial- 
ly, the  title  was  a  prefix  usually  abbreviated  into  the  mono- 
syllable, "Squire."  In  Connecticut,  this  title  was  confined 
almost  exclusively  to  the  governor  and  deputy  governor, 
until  of  the  union  with  New  Haven  colony  was  effected  in 
1665.  The  only  exceptions  found  upon  our  records,  are  in 
the  cases  of  Colonel  Fenwick,  of  Saybrook,  and  John  Win- 
throp,  who  was  subsequently  chosen  governor.  Indeed,  it 
would  seem  that  office  of  whatever  grade  did  not  necessarily 
make  the  official  an  esquire.  Mr.  Thomas  Wells,  was  a  magis- 
trate for  seventeen  years,  deputy  governor  for  one  year,  and 
was  chosen  governor  for  the  second  time,  before  he  was  dig- 
nified with  that  honorable  title. f 

The  next  title  to  be  noticed  is  that  of  "  Gentleman"  or,  as 
it  was  usually  abbreviated  "  Gent."  This  designation,  which 
occurs  but  seldom  upon  our  early  records,  is  essentially  an 
English  title,  is  placed  at  the  end  of  the  name,  and,  like 
esquire,  either  before  or  after  the  place  of  residence.  Aside 
from  its  general  application,  it  was  used  in  England  especial- 
ly to  designate  that  class  who  hold  a  middle  rank  between 
esquires  and  masters.  This  distinction  seems  to  have  been 
soon  discarded  in  Connecticut. 

*  This  title  appears  to  have  been  first  applied  in  Connecticut  to  Major  Andross ; 
and  hy  him  to  Governor  Winthrop. 

t  Such  titles  as  the  following  sometimes  occur  on  our  records,  or  in  letters  ad- 
dressed to  the  individuals  named,  and  others,  viz:  "  the  Honored  Major  Talcott," 
"the  Worshipful  Captain  John  Allyn,"  "the  Worshipful  and  much  Honored 
John  Winthrop,"  &c. 


424  HISTOEY   OF   CONNECTICUT. 

The  prefix  of  "  Master"  (Mr.)  belonged  to  all  gentlemen, 
including  those  designated  by  the  higher  marks  of  rank  that 
have  been  mentioned  above.  Master  corresponds  very 
nearly  in  meaning  to  the  English  word,  gentleman.  In  Con- 
necticut, it  embraced  clergymen,  and  planters  of  good  family 
and  estate  who  were  members  of  the  General  Court ;  those 
bred  up  at  a  university,  and  those  of  sufficient  education  to 
manage  the  general  affairs  of  the  colony,  either  in  a  civil  or 
ecclesiastical  way,  and  who  had  been  sufficiently  well  born. 
Comparatively  few  of  the  representatives  from  the  several 
towns,  even  though  they  might  be  returned  year  after  year, 
were  honored  with  this  title.  To  be  called  master,  or  to 
have  one's  name  recorded  by  the  secretary  with  that  prefix, 
two  hundred  years  ago,  was  a  more  certain  index  of  the 
rank  of  the  individual  as  respects  birth,  education,  and 
good  moral  character,  than  any  one  of  the  high-sounding  ap- 
pellations with  which  many  men  of  no  merit  whatever,  in 
our  day  of  swift  locomotion,  are  content  to  cajole  others  in 
order  that  they  may  be  enriched  in  their  turn  with  the  same 
spurious  currency.  It  may  be  observed,  by  reference  to  our 
colonial  records,  that  there  were  scores  of  men  of  good 
family  and  in  honorable  stations  who  still  did  not  possess  all 
the  requisite  qualities  of  masters.  It  was  seldom  that  young 
men,  of  whatever  rank,  were  called  masters. 

The  appellation  of  "  Sir,"  besides  its  ordinary  use,  was 
employed  in  a  technical  and  limited  sense  to  designate  young 
gentlemen  who  were  under  graduates  at  a  university  or  col- 
lege. Hence,  a  son  of  Governor  Winthrop,  Mr,  Sherman, 
or  Governor  Treat,  returning  home  from  Yale  or  Cambridge, 
to  spend  a  vacation,  would  be  greeted  by  their  old  companions 
as  Sir  Winthrop,  Sir  Sherman,  or  Sir  Treat. 

"  Goodman,"  was  also  a  term  of  civility,  and  in  a  certain 
qualified  sense  might  be  called  a  title.  Its  application  pre- 
dicated of  him  to  whom  it  was  given,  a  humble  origin,  and 
it  comprehended  the  better  sort  of  yeomen,  laborers,  tenants, 
and  other  dependents  above  the  grade  of  servants,  who  own- 
ed a  small  estate,  and  who  sustained  a  good  moral  character. 


MILITAEY  AND  ECCLESIASTICAL  TITLES.  425 

Our  colonial  records  afford  several  instances  of  deputies  to 
the  General  Court  who  were  signalized  by  this  mark  of  the 
public  regard.  The  corresponding  term  as  applied  to  the 
other  sex,  was  Goodwife. 

Military  titles  were  considered  of  a  very  high  order,  as  we 
should  naturally  expect  to  find  them  in  a  colony  that  was  in 
an  almost  uninterrupted  state  of  war  from  the  time  of  the 
burning  of  the  Pequot  fort,  until  the  close  of  the  American 
revolution.  These  titles,  therefore,  abound  in  our  early 
colonial  records,  from  that  of  captain  down  to  that  of  cor- 
poral, and  usually  took  precedence  of  the  ordinary  terms  of 
address.  These  gradations  of  official  rank  were  expressed  by 
the  usual  abbreviations,  and  were  seldom  omitted.  Previous  to 
1654,  the  highest  military  office  in  the  colony  was  that  of 
captain  ;  and  previous  to  1652,  the  only  captain  in  the  colony 
was  John  Mason,  whose  jurisdiction  extended  throughout 
Connecticut,  Captain  Mason,  and  especially  in  later  years, 
Major  Mason,  when  he  visited  the  militia  of  the  different 
towns,  as  he  did  at  stated  intervals,  was  gazed  at  by  the  boys 
and  girls  of  the  settlement  with  eyes  of  wide  wonder,  as  a 
man  to  be  reverenced,  but  not  approached. 

Those  titles  of  an  Ecclesiastical  nature  were  of  course 
held  in  high  esteem  by  our  Puritan  fathers,  both  in  Old  Eng- 
land and  in  New  England.  The  clerical  prefix  of  Revei'end, 
does  not  occur  upon  our  colonial  records  until  about  1670;* 
the  members  of  the  profession  bearing  the  simple  titles  of 
Mr.,  Pastor,  Teacher,  or  Elder,  Deacons  were  regarded  with 
reverence,  and  were  often  employed  in  civil  as  well  as  in  ec- 
clesiastical affairs.  The  title  frequently  occurs  in  the  list  of 
deputies  and  commissioners.  In  New  Haven  colony,  where 
all  the  freemen  were  church  members,  the  term  or  title  of 
"  Brother,"  was  often  used  as  a  prefix  to  the  nEj^es  of  per- 
sons appointed  to  civil  office. 

I  have  said  that  many  of  the  principal  emigrants  brought 
over  servants  with  them  from  England.  Such  was  the  scarcity 
of  laborers  that,  with  the  exception  of  the  clergy,  nearly  all 

*  The  general  term,  "  the  Reverend  Elders,"  occurs  much  earlier. 


426  HISl-OEY  OF  CONNECTICUT. 

the  original  proprietors  toiled  earnestly  upon  their  planta- 
tions, and  frequently  in  the  same  field  with  their  servants. 
But  after  the  fibres  of  the  state  became  more  firmly  knit,  after 
the  lands  were  partially  cleared,  when  corn  and  money  began 
to  be  more  abundant,  and  after  the  tide  of  emigration,  check- 
ed for  awhile,  had  brought  a  liberal  supply  of  working-men 
who  were  willing  to  till  the  fields  and  make  new  conquests 
over  the  still  abounding  forests,  society  began  to  assume 
its  old  English  features,  and  distinct  generic  orders  were  form- 
ed upon  a  somewhat  stable  basis  long  before  the  revolution. 

These  orders  were  distinguished  by  the  terms  gentlemen, 
yeomen,  merchants,*  mechanics,  and  servants,  or  domes- 
tics. The  lines  drawn  around  these  respective  classes  were 
not  so  strict  as  to  be  in  the  way  of  personal  merit  when  it 
sought  to  rise ;  but  were  sufficiently  so  to  characterize  the 
several  grades.  By  this  time  the  name  of  planter  had  almost 
entirely  disappeared  from  our  records,  and  that  of  farmer 
had  been  partially  substituted. 

The  term.  Yeoman,  was  applied  to  that  class  of  freehold- 
ers and  planters  who  stood  next  in  rank  to  gentlemen,  of 
whose  position  I  have  spoken  elsewhere.  Some  of  the 
yeomen  bore  the  title  of  master,  and  they  were  frequently 
called  to  discharge  important  public  trusts.  By  this  time, 
too,  from  the  want  of  the  guards  that  in  England  had  always 
proved  so  favorable  to  the  growth  and  continuance  of  privi- 
leged classes,  very  many  of  the  descendants  of  the  best 
families  who  emigrated  to  Connecticut,  had  glided  imper- 
ceptibly from  their  position  at  that  time,  and  had  taken  the 
middle  stage.  Many  of  the  yeomen  were  as  well  born,  and 
had  as  much  pride  of  family,  as  the  educated  class.  Indeed, 
the  latter  class  was  to  a  good  extent  made  up  from  the  yeo- 
manry of  the  more  cultivated  sort,  who  could  easily  resume 
the  place  that  their  ancestors  had   filled  with  such  honor. 

*  The  early  traders,  especially  in  the  small  settlements  and  towns,  of  course 
did  but  a  small  business  in  that  line,  and  were  often  freeholders  and  planters  in 
addition.     They  subsequently  became  a  distinct  and  very  respectable  class. 


THE   ARISTOCRACY.  427 

The  last  remark  is  true  of  many  of  the  merchants  and 
mechanics  of  those  times. 

The  educated  class  filled  the  pulpit,  the  bench,  the  magis- 
tracy, the  bar,  and  the  medical  profession,  and  constituted 
much  the  largest  portion  of  the  aristocracy,  which  grew 
more  rapidly  than  ever  before,  from  the  time  that  the  slave- 
trade  first  gave  it  nutriment,  until  it  reached  its  zenith  about 
twenty  years  after  the  close  of  the  revolution.  Many  of 
the  officers  of  the  army,  who  were  regarded  with  deep  rev- 
erence by  the  people,  were  the  principal  pillars  of  the  aris- 
tocracy. But  the  most  thoroughly  patrician  body  of  men  in 
Connecticut  was  the  clergy,  who  exercised  an  almost  un- 
limitM  authority  over  the  inhabitants.  I  do  not  believe 
there  ever  was  an  aristocracy  more  deserving  of  respect,  as 
well  from  the  high  tone  of  its  morality  as  from  the  stateliness 
and  general  decorum  that  distinguished  its  members ;  nor  do 
I  believe  there  ever  was  a  yeomanry  more  independent  and 
manly  or  less  the  victims  of  envy. 

This  state  of  things  continued,  with  such  variations  as  be- 
longed to  the  gradual  development  of  society,  down  to  the 
close  of  Governor  Smith's  administration,  when  the  freemen 
voluntarily  laid  aside  the  charter  that  they  had  never  sur- 
rendered to  the  crown. 

With  all  this  respect  paid  to  orders  and  officials,  growing 
partly  out  of  their  religious  belief,  that  taught  them  to  rever- 
ence all  powers  and  dignitaries  except  such  as  they  believed 
to  be  wrongfully  applied,  and  partly  out  of  those  English  pre- 
judices that  they  brought  with  them,  in  favor  of  gentle  lin- 
eage and  established  authorities,  they  were  obliged  to  live 
in  a  very  humble  and  simple  way  for  many  years.  Their 
dwellings  were  at  first  mostly  constructed  of  logs.  The 
planters  who  spent  the  first  winter  in  Hartford,  Wethersfield, 
and  Windsor,  had  no  better  houses  than  the  wretched  huts 
that  colliers  now  use  upon  our  mountains  as  a  temporary 
shelter  while  they  are  watching  their  coal-pits  and  drawing 
their  coal.  After  Hooker  and  Wareham,  with  their  com- 
panies, arrived  in  the  valley,  better  dwellings  were  construct- 


428  HISTORY   OF   CONNECTICUT. 

ed,  and  in  all  the  old  towns  a  few  frame  houses  were  soon 
reared  for  the  more  wealthy  and  respectable  citizens.  The 
houses  of  the  ministers  were  made  as  elegant  and  comfort- 
able as  the  circumstances  of  the  people  would  afford.  The 
dwellings  of  the  governor  and  more  wealthy  magistrates  and 
gentlemen,  were  some  of  them  expensive.  The  house  built 
by  the  Rev.  Henry  Whitfield,  at  Guilford,  was  of  stone, 
with  very  solid  and  massive  walls,  that  have  withstood  the 
action  of  the  frosts  and  the  other  harsh  influences  of  the 
climate,  and  will  do  so  yet  for  hundreds  of  years,  if  man, 
that  worst  of  all  destroyers,  will  permit  it  to  remain.  It  is 
the  oldest  house  now  standing  in  the  United  States,  and  is  a 
fit  memorial  of  the  enduring  fame  of  Whitfield,  the  founder 
of  Guilford.*  The  house  of  Desborough  was  also  of  stone, 
but  the  walls  were  long  ago  thrown  down. 

Most  of  the  buildings  in  the  colony,  however,  were  con- 
structed of  wood,  and  the  better  classes,  after  the  fiirst  thirty 
years,  lived  in  framed  houses.  These  frames  were  made  of 
heavy  oak  timbers,  some  of  them  eighteen  inches  in  diame- 
ter. The  rafters  were  larger  than  the  plates,  sills  and  beams 
of  our  modern  country  houses,  and  supported  slit  sticks 
called,  in  the  rude  architectural  language  of  the  day,  "  ribs," 
that  were  laid  across  them  at  regular  distances,  and  to  which 
long  rent  shingles  of  cedar  were  fastened  with  tough  wrought 
nails.  The  sides  of  the  building  were  covered  with  oak 
clapboards  rent  from  the  tree  and  smoothed  with  a  shaving- 
knife.  These  outer  boards  lapped  over  each  other,  and  were 
fastened  to  the  upright  and  horizontal  timbers  by  nails  much 
larger  than  those  now  used  in  the  roof-eaving.  Within,  the 
sides  of  the  rooms  only  were  plastered,  while  the  sleepers  and 
the  upper  floor  were  exposed  to  view.  The  floors  were  of 
oaken  plank.  The  windows  consisted  of  two  small  leaden 
frames  set  with  diamond-shaped  panes,  secured  by  hinges 
that  opened  outward,  and  were  fastened  against  the  side  of 

*  This  venerable  structure  was  built  about  the  year  1640,  and,  on  account  of 
its  impregnable  walls,  was  sometimes  used  as  a  block-house  or  fort  by  the 
settlers. 


THE   DWELLINGS   OF  THE   PIONEERS.  429 

the  house.  When  closed,  the  two  sashes  formed  nearly  a 
square.  The  outer  doors  of  the  mansion  were  of  double 
oaken  planks,  made  as  solid  as  a  single  piece  of  timber  by 
nails  or  spikes  driven  into  them  in  the  angles  of  diamonds.* 
When  these  gates  of  his  domestic  paradise  were  secured  at 
night  by  the  heavy  wooden  bars  that  had  stood  throughout 
the  day  leaning  against  the  wall,  the  planter  and  his  family 
had  little  cause  to  fear  the  entrance  of  wild  beasts  or  Indians, 
and  other  burglars  for  many  years  there  were  none  in  Con- 
necticut. Indeed,  after  the  Indians  had  been  tamed  and  the 
wolves  and  bears  driven  farther  off  by  the  gradual  destruc- 
tion of  their  old  haunts,  the  tenants  of  these  humble  Arca- 
dian castles  slept  peacefully  from  one  year  to  another  with- 
out even  barring  or  bolting  their  doors. 

The  rooms  of  the  early  habitations  were  seldom  more  than 
seven  feet  in  height,  so  that  the  sturdy  emigrants,  and  their 
sons,  who  had  rather  added  to  the  stature  of  their  fathers 
than  subst.racted  from  it  by  athletic  and  wholesome  exercise, 
in  wood  and  field  and  camp,  during  the  period  of  life  when 
the  bones  are  enlarging,  and  the  muscles  are  assuming  a 
hardened  and  fibrous  texture,  could  hardly  stand  upright  upon 
the  kitchen  floor  without  brushing  the  fur  of  their  bear-skin 
caps  against  the  timbers  overhead. 

The  most  indestructible  part  of  the  whole  edifice  was  the 
huge  stone  tower  that  occupied  the  centre,  rising  out  of  the 
ridge,  and  called  a  chimney.  Its  foundations  were  about 
twelve  feet  square.  The  fire-places,  as  they  were  very  pro- 
perly termed,  especially  the  ones  most  in  use,  were  of  such 
dimensions  that  the  wood  could  be  brought  from  the  forest, 
taken  from  the  cart,  and  heaped  upon  the  ponderous  andirons 
in  great  quantities.  In  the  coldest  vi^eather,  a  large  log  of 
maple,  oak,  or  walnut,  was  placed  at  the  back  of  the  fire- 
place, and  other  smaller  ones  laid  upon  it.  The  andirons 
were  brought  in  front  of  this  formidable  battery,  that  was 
made  still  more  durable  by  a  log  about  eight  inches  in  diame- 
ter, called  a  fore-stick.  The  smaller  wood  was  then  care- 
*  See  Lambert,  201. 


430  HISTORY   OF   CONNECTICUT. 

fully  put  on  with  pine  knots,  birch  bark,  or  other  dry  fuel,  in 
the  middle.  The  quantity  of  wood  consumed  in  a  single  day 
in  the  more  severe  winter  weather,  was  enormous  ;  and  the 
ventilation  caused  by  the  keen  currents  of  air  that  found  a 
free  entrance  through  the  crevices  of  the  building,  would  be 
terrific  to  a  housewife  of  modern  days.  The  fire  was  by  no 
means  small  even  in  summer,  and  after  the  toils  of  the  day, 
the  family  would  gather  around  it  even  while  the  doors  were 
wide  open,  and  the  cry  of  the  frog  from  the  marsh,  and  the 
whippowill  from  the  home-meadow,  stole  upon  their  seclu- 
sion with  associations  cheerful  or  sad  as  suited  the  tempera- 
ments and  moods  of  the  various  members  composing  the 
circle.* 

Conversation  was  sometimes  startled  and  chilled  into  sud- 
den silence,  in  the  early  and  more  superstitious  days,  by  the 
gleam  of  a  meteor  seen  through  the  diamond-shaped  window 
panes  or  open  door,  as  it  lit  up  the  little  patch  of  sky  that 
lay  clear  and  open  behind  the  branches  of  the  trees.  If, 
when  the  free  laugh  was  ringing  from  the  heart  of  the  boys 
and  girls  at  some  grotesque  account  of  adventures,  old  or 
new,  a  malicious  screech-owl,  seizing  the  loved  opportunity 
when  the  face  of  the  moon  was  veiled  by  a  cloud,  chanced 
to  mingle  his  mocking  merriment  with  theirs,  what  wonder 
if  a  shivering  sigh  bore  quick  witness  how  well  they  remem- 
bered that  the  devil  was  as  fond  as  ever  of  his  old  pastimes 
in  solitudes  and  desert  places  ?  I  much  doubt  if  King  James 
I.,  had  he  been  living  in  such  extreme  retirement,  would  not 
have  found  his  teeth  chattering  and  his  hair  bristling  at  a 
like  signal  from  the  father  of  lies.  Even  Sir  Walter  Raleigh 
,  would  have  knocked  the  ashes  out  of  his  pipe  and  mused ; 
and  my  Lord  Coke,  would  have  forgotten  for  a  moment,  how 
necessary  it  was  to  his  own  proper  development  to  ruin  Sir 
Francis  Bacon.  In  a  much  later  age,  Dr.  Johnson  himself 
might  have  found  his  hand  arrested  in  the  act  of  conveying 
to  his  mouth  the  thirteenth  cup  of  tea,  and  might  have  been 
strangled  in  the  midst  of  a  sentence  in  which  the  oat-meal 

*  Lambert,  202. 


BREAKFAST  AND  DINNER.  431 

cakes  of  Scotland,  or  the  unfortunate  Chesterfield,  formed 
the  theme  of  vituperation.  Possibly  the  reader's  nervous 
equilibrium  might  be  shaken  at  a  much  less  provocation,  even 
in  the  midst  of  a  hearty  fit  of  laughter  at  the  bigotry  and 
superstition  of  the  puritans. 

There  were  a  few  houses  in  the  colony  of  a  more  aristo- 
cratic type  than  the  one  that  I  have  selected  to  represent 
the  dwellings  of  the  early  inhabitants.  Among  these,  I  can 
only  stop  to  name  Governor  Eaton's  of  New  Haven,  built  in 
the  form  of  a  capital  E,  with  its  numerous  windows,  its  stack 
of  chimneys  with  their  twenty-one  fire-places  ;  and  that  of  his 
friend,  Mr.  Davenport,  scarcely  less  imposing.* 

The  meals  of  the  early  planters  were  such  as  befitted  Eng- 
lishmen who  were  remote  from  all  commercial  relations,  in  a 
new  country,  where  nature,  with  few  exceptions,  reduces  all 
her  sons  to  the  common  necessity  of  providing  for  their  own 
sustenance.  They  ate  and  drank  what  she  provided  for  them, 
and  thanked  God  that  it  was  so  bountiful  and  so  nourishing. 

The  breakfast  of  the  farmers  often  consisted  mainly  of  a 
soup  made  of  salt  meat  and  beans,  and  seasoned  with  savory 
herbs.  This  dish  was  called  "  bean  porridge,"  and  has  long 
been  the  fruitful  subject  of  verse.  Tea  and  coffee  they  had 
none  during  the  seventeenth  century.  Their  drink  was  chiefly 
beer  and  cider,  after  their  orchards  were  sufficiently  grown 
to  afford  them  such  a  luxury. f 

The  dinner  was  a  much  more  substantial  meal.  A  large 
Indian  pudding,  with  an  appropriate  sauce,  often  constituted 
the  first  course ;  and  after  that,  boiled  beef  and  pork ;  and  then 
wild  game,  with  potatoes ;  and  then  succeeded  turnips  and 
other  vegetables  native  to  the  climate.  They  had  succatosh 
in  the  season  of  it ;  and  in  the  fall,  samp.  Pumpkins  were 
cooked  by  them  into  various  dishes.  Dinner  was  served  at 
noon. 

*  The  residence  of  Governor  Eaton  stood  upon  the  north  corner  of  Elm  and 
Orange  streets ;  that  of  Mr.  Davenport  was  on  the  west  side  of  Elm  str^t,  near 
State  street,  New  Haven.     The  latter  was  built  in  the  form  of  a  cross. 

+  As  early  as  1654,  laws  were  passed  regulating  the  sale  of  "  strong  beer  and 
cider." 


432  HISTORY   OF   CONNECTICUT. 

At  supper — afterwards  called  tea — they  also  ate  very  sub- 
stantial food.  It  was  almost  always  cold,  with  an  occasional 
variation  of  cakes  made  of  corn-meal,  rye,  or  buckwheat. 
These  cakes,  however,  were  oftener  prepared  for  breakfast. 

Their  table  furniture  was  plain.  Pewter  was  the  more 
ordinary  metal  in  use,  but  silver  was  often  seen  glittering 
upon  the  same  table  with  the  baser  metal.  Silver  tankards 
and  beakers  were  to  be  found  in  the  houses  of  nearly  all  the 
wealthy  planters  of  good  family.* 

The  tables  of  the  clergymen  and  magistrates,  not  except- 
ing the  governor,  were  furnished  with  similar  fare  to  that 
above  described,  with  various  shades  of  difference  in  the  ar- 
rangement;  and  the  mode  of  serving  it  up,  indicated  more  or 
less  refinement.  In  after  times,  the  tables  of  genteel  fami- 
lies had  more  ambitious  furniture  and  better  viands,  and 
never  was  food  more  wholesome  and  never  did  it  better  do 
its  office  of  nourishing  and  strengthening  the  body,  than  dur- 
ing the  period  of  New  England  history  that  preceded  the 
revolution. 

They  had  no  wheeled  carriages  or  wagons  until  the  mid- 
dle of  the  eighteenth  century,  and  very  few  until  the  revolu- 
tionary war  was  closed.f  The  bridegroom  who  went  to  a 
neighboring  town  to  be  united  with  a  partner  whom  he  hoped 
to  find  through  life  a  "  help  meet  for  him,"  whether  he  was 
gentleman  or  yeoman,  rode  on  horseback,  and  carried  her 
home  on  a  pillion  behind  him. 

The  first  inhabitants  of  Connecticut,  as  we  have  seen,  were 
for  the  most  part  a  very  industrious,  honest,  and  religious 

*  From  aa  examination  of  the  early  inventories,  I  infer  that  most  of  the  arti- 
cles used  for  culinary  and  domestic  use  were  made  of  pewter — such  as  spoons, 
platters,  pitchers,  cups,  plates,  pans,  bottles,  &e.  The  silver  articles  named  in 
these  inventories,  are  flaggons,  beakers,  tankards,  spoons,  cups,  knee  buckles,  and 
shoe  buckles.  Tin  and  crockery  are  seldom  spoken  of.  The  Rev.  J.  B.  Felt,  of 
Boston,  in  his  excellent  work,  "  The  Customs  of  New  England,"  gives  a  descrip- 
tion and  history  of  hundreds  of  articles  of  household  use,  and  of  many  other 
things  tending  to  illustrate  pioneer-life  in  New  England. 

tThe  tirst  pleasure  carriage  (a  chair)  ever  brought  into  Litchfield,  was  ovraed 
by  Mr.  Matthews,  the  English  Mayor  of  New  York,  who  was  confined  in  that 
town  as  a  prisoner  of  war  in  1776. 


EXTREMES.  433 

people.  They  have  been  accused  of  narrow-mindedness  and 
bigotry.  To  a  certain  extent  this  must  be  allowed  to  be 
true.  Their  bigotry  was  of  the  peculiar  kind  that  often 
springs  up  suddenly  in  minds  naturally  enthusiastic  and  self- 
sacrificing.  When  they  rebel  against  customs  and  practices 
so  long  established,  they  are  often  considered  by  those  who 
are  wedded  to  them  to  be  a  part  of  the  moral  and  social  con- 
stitution of  man.  Reformers  always  show  their  horror  of 
the  evils,  real  or  imaginary,  from  which  they  have  emanci- 
pated themselves,  by  going  to  another  extreme  so  radical  and 
marked  as  to  constitute  a  boundary-line  that  may  be  readily 
seen.  Indeed,  such  extremes  are  sooner  or  later  the  very 
badges  and  colors  distinguishing  the  party  that  wears  them. 
If  the  cavaliers  wear  long  hair,  the  Cromwellians  must  of 
course  be  shorn.  As  soon  as  the  cavaliers  have  discov- 
ered the  bald  heads  of  their  opponents,  they  begin  to  ap- 
ply unguents  to  their  long  locks  and  use  all  the  stimu- 
lants that  will  be  likely  to  give  them,  as  nearly  as  possible, 
the  appearance  of  so  many  Absaloms.  When  once  it  was 
known  that  many  of  the  clergy  had  resolved  not  to  conform 
to  some  part  of  the  church  ritual  which  they  thought  excep- 
tionable. Queen  Elizabeth  proceeded  to  take  measures  at 
once  to  make  still  more  stringent  requisitions.  Such  is  man's 
moral  organization  that  he  must  correct  extremes  by  other 
extremes.  A  similar  law  appears  to  prevail  in  the  physical 
creation. 

The  bigotry  of  puritanism  differed  from  the  established 
bigotries  of  England  not  so  much  in  degree  as  in  kind.  Both 
the  great  parties  that  divided  that  country  were,  so  far  as  I 
can  discover,  equally  intolerant,  but  their  intolerance  aimed 
at  different  things.  The  adherents  of  one  abhorred  a  con- 
venticle as  if  it  had  been  a  pestilence ;  those  of  the  other, 
fled  from  the  sight  of  the  surplice  as  if  it  had  been  a  mask  of 
leprosy.  One  party,  in  seeking  to  discard  the  forms  that  it 
regarded  as  the  relics  of  idolatry,  came  at  last  to  shudder  at 
the  sight  of  the  Cross,  and  in  mockery  quartered  troops  of 
soldiers  in  sacred  chapels  and  fed  the  horses  of  the  dragoons 

28 


;43,4:  HISTORY   OF   CONNECTICUT. 

from  the  altars  of  venerable  churches ;  the  other,  with  a 
holy  horror,  sacrificed  human  victims  to  appease  its  wrath. 
The  narrow-mindedness  of  the  one  party,  drove  it  to  spurn 
the  elegancies  of  classical  learning,  and  to  turn  away  from 
Shakspeare  with  loathing ;  while  that  of  the  other,  looked 
askance  at  the  grandest  epic  in  the  whole  treasury  of  letters, 
because  it  had  been  bequeathed  to  the  world  by  a  puritan. 

The  puritans  abhorred  profanity  and  debauchery,  and 
hence,  associating  the  vices  of  the  cavaliers  with  the  dresses 
that  they  wore,  they  assumed  a  new  costume  as  unlike  the 
old  as  their  imaginations  could  devise ;  the  cavaliers,  in  self- 
vindication,  and  to  show  how  defiant  they  were  of  the  puri- 
tans, placed  their  chapeaus  upon  their  heads  with  a  still  more 
jaunty  air,  and  curtailed  their  already  short  cloaks  still  the 
more. 

Whoever  sees  anything  to  worship  in  any  or  all  of  these 
evidences  of  human  imperfection,  is  at  liberty  to  choose  from 
the  temple  of  prejudice  the  idol  that  he  deems  most  worthy 
of  his  adoration.  For  my  part,  I  can  see  nothing  to  admire 
in  them,  but  much  to  shun.  In  doing  so,  I  condemn  not  the 
cavaliers  for  clinging  to  the  past,  nor  the  puritans  for  break- 
ing away  from  its  thraldom ;  but  rather  the  bad  passions  of 
our  common  nature  that  have  so  long  resisted  the  influences 
of  reason  and  the  benign  charities  of  the  christian  faith. 
They  are  to  be  treasured  up  as  lessons. 

The  inhabitants  of  Connecticut,  from  the  enjoyment  of  a 
larger  liberty  than  could  exist  in  Massachusetts  under  the 
administration  of  a  more  aristocratic  and  strictly  provincial 
government,  were  thus  taught  to  bestow  upon  those  who  dif- 
fered from  them  a  greater  measure  of  liberality.  Still  they 
were  not  free  from  the  taint  of  superstition.  They  had  left 
England  with  a  main  design  to  enjoy  their  own  religious 
tenets.  With  this  view  they  had  bought  their  wild  lands ; 
with  this  view  they  established  a  peculiar  form  of  govern- 
ment. They  looked  with  extreme  jealousy  upon  the  en- 
croaching power  of  popery,  and  many  of  them  regarded 
episcopacy  as  only  a  modified  form  of  cathoUcism.     As  they 


FAST  AND   THANKSGIVING.  435 

had  been  at  such  pains  to  enjoy  their  own  opinions,  they 
knew  no  other  rule  than  the  characteristic  one  of  that  age, 
exclusiveness,  or,  if  that  would  not  avail,  coercion.  They 
resolved  to  keep  out  all  religious  sects  from  their  limits,  or,  if 
they  ventured  to  cross  their  border,  to  compel  them  to  con- 
form. They  determined,  too,  that  if  it  were  possible  the 
very  festivals  as  well  as  modes  of  worship  that  were  associa- 
ted in  their  minds  with  oppression  and  arbitrary  power, 
should  be  suppressed,  and  that  other  public  days  should  be 
substituted. 

The  public  days  of  the  people  of  Connecticut  were  two, 
viz..  Fast,  and  Thanksgiving. 

The  Fast  was  appointed  at  irregular  intervals,  usually  on 
account  of  some  special  or  threatened  calamity  which  was 
designated  by  the  General  Court,  or  by  the  governor  at  the 
time  of  the  appointment,  care  being  always  taken  not  to 
have  it  on  Good  Friday.  On  fast  day,  no  food  was  cooked 
in  the  houses  of  the  inhabitants,  nor  did  the  more  exemplary 
church  members  eat  any  regular  meals  until  after  the  sun 
went  down.  They  had  public  worship  on  that  occasion  as 
they  did  on  Sunday,  and  spent  the  time  in  self-examination, 
humiliation,  and  prayer.  The  sins  of  the  people  were  made 
the  burden  of  the  minister's  discourse,  and  most  earnestly 
did  he  pray  that  he  and  his  flock  might  be  delivered  from 
temptation.* 

But  the  grand  festival  of  the  people,  and  the  one  in  which 
they  took  the  liveliest  interest,  was  Thanksgiving. "f  For 
many  years  it  was  appointed  only  on  occasions  of  special  in- 
terest ;  but  subsequently  the  legislature  fixed  upon  Novem- 
ber of  each  year,  after  the  crops  had  all  been  gathered 
in,  and  during  that  shadowy  and  hushed  season,  the 
twilight  of  the  year,  when  the  veil  of  the  Indian  summer 

*In  Jan.  1644,  it  was  ordered  that  there  should  be  a  day  of  fasting  and 
humiliation  observed  throughout  the  plantations  every  month.  A  similar  order 
was  issued  in  August,  1676.  The  regular  annual  fast  was  not  appointed  until 
after  the  revolution. 

t  The  first  Thanksgiving  Day  ever  appointed  in  Connecticut,  was  on  the  1 8th 
of  September,  1639. 


436  HISTOEY  OF   CONNECTICUT. 

heightened  by  partly  concealing  the  beauty  of  the  south- 
western hills.  It  is  difficult  to  conceive  at  this  remote  day, 
when  the  fruits  of  their  labors  alone  remain,  while  the  hard- 
ships that  they  endured  are  forgotten,  what  happy  associa- 
tions clustered  around  this  festival.  After  the  first  forty  years 
had  passed  by,  and  it  had  begun  to  assume  the  character  of  an 
established  institution,  the  hearts  of  the  old  and  the  young  throb- 
bed with  anticipation  as  it  drew  near.  The  preparations  for  the 
dinner  were  very  substantial  and  bountiful.  It  was  usually 
celebrated  at  the  old  homestead  and  in  the  house  of  the  patri- 
arch of  the  family.  It  was  held  on  Thursday,  and  generally  late 
in  the  month.  Thanksgiving  week  taxed  the  energies  of  the 
whole  family.  The  stalled  ox  and  the  fatted  calf  were  killed. 
The  plumpest  chickens  and  turkeys  and  geese  were  selected 
from  the  barn-yard,  the  yellowest  pumpkins  from  the  barn,  and 
the  finest  potatoes  and  turnips  from  the  cellar.  The  children  of 
the  pioneers,  who  were  scattered  throughout  the  colony,  now 
turned  their  thoughts  and  faces  homeward.  The  son  who 
had  left  his  father's  roof  in  early  manhood,  and  who  longed 
once  more  to  see  the  apple-trees  that  he  had  planted,  and  to 
receive  the  paternal  blessing,  now  commenced  his  journey, 
with  his  wife  and  a  whole  swarm  of  sun-browned  boys  and 
ruddy  girls.  The  brothers  and  sisters  all  met  and  all  brought 
their  children.  Sometimes  there  were  so  many  that  the 
house  would  scarcely  hold  them  ;  but  the  dear  old  grand- 
mother, whose  memory  could  hardly  keep  the  constantly 
lengthening  record  of  their  births,  and  whose  eye,  dim  with 
tears  and  age,  could  never  see  which  child  to  love  the  best,  wel- 
comed each  with  a  trembling  hand  and  an  overflowing  heart. 

The  early  part  of  the  day  was  spent  by  the  male  members 
of  the  family  in  attendance  upon  public  worship,  where  the 
old  emigrant,  with  the  white  frost  of  his  eightieth  winter  in 
his  hair,  sat  more  erect  than  he  was  wont,  and  could  not, 
with  all  his  humility,  refrain  from  dividing  his  attention  be- 
tween the  discourse  and  the  long  row  of  boys,  who,  in  spite 
of  the  strictness  of  puritan  discipline,  waited  impatienly  for 
the  "Amen,"  that  was  to  set  them  at  liberty. 


THANKSGIVING.  437 

On  their  return  from  the  meeting-house,  dinner  awaited 
them.  It  may  be  presumed  that  there  was  not  a  single  dys- 
peptic in  the  whole  group,  and  that  they  did  good  justice  to 
the  viands. 

After  their  repast,  the  family  gathered  around  the  blazing 
hickory  fire,  the  children  adding  to  its  volume  the  shells  of 
the  walnuts  and  butternuts  that  threw  into  it,  without 
disturbing  the  conversation  of  their  parents,  who  recounted 
each  in  his  turn  the  incidents  that  they  had  given  variety  to 
the  year.  Indian  wars ;  the  depredations  of  the  Dutch  ;  the 
plot  of  that  wretch,  Peter  Stuyvesant,  to  exterminate  the 
whole  English  population  ;  the  wolf  and  bear  hunts  ;  the  mar 
velous  stories  of  rattlesnakes ;  and,  I  must  admit,  sometimes 
still  more  marvelous  manifestations  from  the  spiritual  world  ; 
apparitions,  ghosts,  visitations  from  the  devil ;  the  execution 
of  Goodwife  Knapp,  and  the  scorn  with  which  she  looked 
upon  her  accusers,  were  fruitful  themes  to  while  away  the 
evening.  Games,  too,  helped  to  divert  the  attention  of  the 
children  from  subjects  likely  to  disturb  their  sleep. 

As  the  evening  deepened,  and  the  little  ones  began  to  nod 
upon  their  benches  in  the  chimney  corner,  the  old  family 
bible  was  brought,  and,  after  a  portion  of  it  had  been  read, 
the  voice  of  the  grandsire,  tremulous  with  emotion  rather 
than  with  age,  was  heard  returning  thanks  to  Almighty  God 
for  his  infinite  mercy  in  times  past,  in  preserving  the  lives 
and  health  of  the  circle  gathered  around  him,  and  supplicating 
him  to  keep  them  from  temptation,  and  to  multiply  their  de- 
scendants as  the  stars  of  the  sky  and  the  sands  of  the  sea. 

Such  was  Thanksgiving,  a  time-honored,  venerable  cus- 
tom, that  has  gradually  extended  itself  into  the  most  distant 
part  of  our  great  republic.  The  occasion  of  it,  only  remem- 
bered now  by  the  antiquarian,  its  more  forbidding  features 
worn  away  as  the  years  have  left  behind  them  in  their  flight 
the  noxious  shades  of  superstition,  its  genial  warmth,  its  hal- 
lowed domestic  and  historical  associations,  still  survive  in  the 
bosom  of  him  who  can  trace  his  descent  from  the  fathers  of 
Connecticut,  whether  his  foot  presses  her  soil,  or  whether  on 


438  HISTORY   OF   CONNECTICUT. 

the  borders  of  the  great  lakes  and  rivers  of  the  west,  in  the 
vast  forest,  or  in  the  billowy  grass  of  the  prairies,  he  joins 
with  the  voices  of  nature  in  returning  thanks  to  the  author 
of  his  being. 

Though  Thanksgiving  was  the  only  general  festival,  the 
reader  is  not  to  conclude  that  there  were  no  other  occasions 
of  festivity  and  rejoicing  among  the  people  of  Connecticut. 
Among  the  more  primitive  and  rural  portions  of  the  popula- 
tion, there  were  husking,  apple-pearing,  and  quilting  parties  ; 
the  social,  neighborly  gatherings  around  the  great  winter- 
fires  ;  and  the  sleigh-rides,  balls,  and  weddings,  which  were 
not  confined  to  any  particular  class  or  locality. 

I  shall  not  attempt  to  describe  a  wedding-party  among  our 
ancestors.  Indeed,  the  ceremony  and  its  accompanying  con- 
gratulations and  rejoicings  on  the  part  of  attendants  and 
friends,  wete  as  varied  then  as  now.  True,  the  era  of  bride- 
stealing*  has  gone  by ;  and  the  rustic  serenade  of  horns  and 
kettles  is  becoming  an  obsolete  entertainment.  Yet,  amidst 
all  the  artificial  forms  and  polite  blandishments  which  modern 
taste  and  refinement  have  thrown  around  this  most  interest- 
ing ceremony,  it  were  well  to  ask  if  there  has  been  a  corres- 
ponding advance  in  the  motives  and  purposes  that  influence 
the  union  of  heart  and  hand  in  bonds  indissoluble  ?  Formerly, 
at  least,  it  was  understood  by  both  parties  that  the  wife  was 
to  be  "  a  help  meet  for  her  husband."  On  this  point  the  min- 
ister who  joined  them  was  wont  to  be  very  emphatic. f 

I  have  intimated  that  balls  were  among  the  amusements  of 
the  past  in  this  colony.  This,  it  is  to  be  presumed,  was  or- 
dinarily confined  to  the  young  people ;  and  did  not  always 
meet  with  the  hearty  concurrence  of  the  elder  and  more 
sedate  portion  of  the  community.  The  expenses  attending 
such  gatherings,  were  made  to  conform  to  the  condition  and 
circumstances  of  the  people  as  they  then  were,  and  certain- 

*  A  Poem,  by  Mrs.  Emma  Willard,  entitled,  "  Bride-Stealing,  a  Tale  of  New- 
England's  Middle  Ages,"  is  preserved  in  Everest's  "  Poets  of  Connecticut."  It 
gives  a  poetical  account  of  one  among  many  instances  of  "  stealing  the  bride"  that 
occurred  in  the  early  days  of  the  colony. 

+  Bushneli's  Discourse. 


■     FUNERAL   CUSTOMS,  439 

ly  would  not  be  thought  extravagant  in  these  days*  It  was 
long  the  custom  in  Connecticut,  for  the  young  men  and  wo- 
men of  a  parish  to  celebrate  the  occasion  of  the  settlement 
of  a  new  minister  by  a  ball  on  the  evening  following  the  day 
of  his  ordination  or  installation.  This  was  termed  the  "or- 
dination ball,"  and  was  sometimes  conducted  with  such  pro- 
priety and  decorum  that  church-members  and  even  the  new 
pastor  would  honor  the  ball  with  their  presence.  They  ulti- 
mately came  to  be  regarded  as  a  scandal,  and  were  at  last 
suppressed  by  public  sentiment. 

The  customs  at  funerals  in  different  parts  of  New  England 
were  for  many  years  somewhat  peculiar,  and  were  long  since 
modified  or  abandoned.  The  distribution  of  gloves,  rings, 
and  scarfs  at  funerals  prevailed  to  such  an  extent,  that  in 
1721,  the  Legislature  of  Massachusetts  passed  a  law  against 
the  usage.  Town  authorities  complied  with  the  fashion  so 
far,  that  they  distributed  these  articles  at  the  burial  of  their 
paupers,  and  the  expense  was  charged  over  to  the  town.  At  the 
funeral'of  the  wife  of  Governor  Belcher  of  Massachusetts,  in 
1736,  more  than  one  thousand  pairs  of  gloves  were  distributed 
among  the  attendants. f  In  the  form  of  an  association  recom- 
mended by  the  Continental  Congress,  in  1774,  the  articles  of 
mourning  for  both  sexes  are  specified ;  with  the  pledge  that  they 
"  will  discountenance  the  giving  of  gloves  and  scarfs  at  funer- 
als." In  Connecticut,  or  rather  in  certain  parts  of  the  colony, 
these  and  other  practices,  now  obsolete,  were  long  continued. 

It  has  doubtless  often  puzzled  those  who  are  curious  in 
such  matters  to  shape  to  their  imaginations  what  fashioned 
clothes  their  early  ancestors  wore,  and  how  they  looked  in 
them.     This  is  not  an  easy  task,  and  yet  something  can  be 

*  Morris,  in  his  "  Statistical  Account"  of  Litchfield,  speaks  of  a  dance  in  that 
town  in  1748,  where  a  violin  was  used  for  the  first  time  in  the  place,  and  adds — 
"  The  whole  expense  of  the  amusement,  although  the  young  people  generally  at- 
tended, did  not  exceed  one  dollar,  out  of  which  the  fiddler  was  paid."  Yet  the 
parents  and  old  people  declared  they  should  be  "  ruined  by  the  extravagances  of 
the  youth." 

f  "  Customs  of  New  England." 


440  HISTORY   OF   CONNECTICUT. 

said   upon   costume  that  may  not  be  uninstructive   to   the 
general  reader, 

I  have  said  that  some  of  the  emigrants  brought  with  them 
from  England  silver-plate  and  articles  of  household  furniture 
that  betokened  their  rank  in  England.  The  same  remark 
will  apply  to  wearing  apparel.  Yet,  except  on  public  days, 
even  the  best  planters  must  have  dressed  with  great  simpli- 
city during  the  first  twenty  or  thirty  years  after  the  colony 
began  to  be  settled.  I  have  also  stated  that  labor  was  the 
common  lot,  and  that  even  gentlemen  did  not  shrink  from  it. 
As  soon  as  they  could,  they  raised  their  own  sheep.  In  this 
way  a  staple  material  was  provided  for  the  winter  clothing  of 
males  and  females.  The  wool  sheared  by  the  hands  of  the 
planters,  his  sons,  and  servants,  was,  by  his  wife,  daughters, 
and  female  domestics,  spun  and  woven  into  cloth,  and  then  cut 
into  garments  by  the  skillful  matron  for  the  members  of  her 
household.  Flax,  too,  and  hemp  were  cultivated  with  much 
care,  and  supplied  them  with  materials  that  they  were  obliged 
to  shape  into  garments  that  would  serve  them  for  the 
warmer  months  of  the  year. 

I  do  not  mean  to  assert  that  our  fathers  were  indifferent 
in  matters  of  dress  and  personal  appearance.  The  gentry 
indulged  in  silks,  velvets,  and  beavers,  and  there  are  still  pre- 
served many  specimens  of  their  taste  in  the  shape  of  rich 
lace  ruffles,  elegant  embroidery,  silk  and  velvet  caps,  and 
costly  ornaments  of  gold  and  silver. 

Small-clothes  were  worn  by  our  forefathers  from  the  ear- 
liest times,  and  were  made  of  sheep  and  deer  skin,  as  well  as 
of  cloth.*  Until  within  the  last  sixty  years,  boys  were 
dressed  in  these  stiff  habiliments  as  soon  as  the  attire  of  their 
childhood  had  been  laid  aside.  These  small-clothes  under- 
went various  modifications  of  fashion.  They  were  usually 
fitted  very  closely  to  the  person,  and  those  men  were  thought 
to  be  very  fortunate  whose  forms  were  such  that  they  could 
wear  small-clothes  above  the  hips  without  appurtenances  and 
stockings  above  the  calf  of  the  leg  without  garters. 
*  Felt's  "  Customs  of  New  England,"  137. 


COSTUME.  441 

Shoes  with  silver  or  brass  buckles  were  worn  with  the 
stockings  or  hose  ;  and  buckles  of  the  same  materials  secur- 
ed the  small-clothes  and  stockings  at  the  knee. 

The  coat  was  in  partial  use  at  the  time  of  the  emigration, 
but  the  doublet  was  more  gereraliy  worn.  The  coat  then  in 
fashion  came  down  dh'ectly  in  front  below  the  knee,  and  was 
fastened  to  the  very  bottom  with  buttons  or  clasps,  and 
sometimes  with  hooks  and  eyes.  The  skirts  were  very  full, 
and  were  made  to  hang  off  from  the  person  by  being  stiffen- 
ed with  buckram.*  In  1715,  and  perhaps  earlier,  this  gar- 
ment was  made  with  pockets  opening  from  the  outside,  pro- 
tected by  ample  flaps.  The  coat  worn  by  wealthy  gentle- 
men, and  persons  of  official  rank,  was  profusely  decorated 
with  gold  lace.  Instead  of  the  broad  collar  of  the  present 
day,  it  had  only  a  narrow  hem  that  exposed  to  view  the 
plaited  stock  of  fine  linen  cambric,  with  its  large  silver 
buckle  at  the  back  of  the  neck.f  The  close-bodied  coat, 
with  its  short  waist  and  flexible  skirts,  was  not  introduced 
until  1790,  or  about  the  middle  of  the  reign  of  George  III.  J 

Cloaks  were  also  used  by  the  fathers  of  New  England. 
They  were  of  a  variety  of  colors,  but  the  most  fashionable 
were  red. 

Hats  were  at  first  for  the  most  part  made  of  wool,  but 
beaver  hats  soon  came  into  use,  and  prevailed  for  many 
years.  Of  whatever  material,  they  were  high-crowned,  and 
in  the  form  of  a  sugar-loaf  The  brims  were  so  broad  as  to 
make  it  necessary  for  the  wearer  to  hold  them  on  firmly  with 
the  hand  when  the  wind  was  blowing.  This  fashion  continu- 
ed until  about  1700,  with  some  slight  changes.  The  grace- 
ful hat  worn  by  Charles  I.,  and  his  cavaliers,  with  its  plume, 
was  sometimes  seen  even  in  New  Englapd.  The  military 
cocked  hat,  called  also  the  Monmouth  hat,  began  to  be  worn 

*  Lambert's  Hist.  New  Haven  Col.,  198.  t  Lambert,  198. 

i  The  skins  of  animals  were  much  used  for  garments  among  the  early  settlers. 
In  the  inventory  of  Mr.  William  Whiting,  one  of  the  wealthiest  citizens  of  Con- 
necticut, (who  died  in  1649,)  are  the  following  items:  "  two  raccoon  coats,  one 
wolf  skin  coat,  four  bear  skins,  three  moose." 


442  HISTORY   OF   CONNECTICUT. 

in  this  country  about  the  year  1670.  The  average  width  of 
the  brim  at  that  date  was  six  inches.  This  inconvenient 
width  probably  suggested  the  plan  of  cocking  it  or  turning  it 
up  and  fastening  it  against  the  side  of  the  crown.  It  was 
first  cocked  on  one  side  only,  then  on  the  opposite  side  also, 
and  in  the  reign  of  queen  Elizabeth  a  third  side  was  turned 
up — making  the  three-cornered  cocked  hats  worn  by  gentle- 
men in  New  England  from  the  year  1732  to  1779.  Even 
gentlemen's  sons  of  the  age  of  fourteen  years,  wore  the  trian- 
gular hat.  When  gentlemen  paid  their  respects  to  ladies,  or  to 
each  other  in  public,  they  took  it  off,  or  in  the  language  of 
the  day,  "  vailed  it." 

Watches  were  worn  by  gentlemen  in  New  England  as 
early  as  1655;  but  this  did  not  become  general  until  about  a 
century  later. 

Rings  were  worn  as  ornaments  in  Connecticut  from  the 
earliest  times.     Ear-rings  and  thumb-rings  were  also  in  use.* 

The  authorities  of  New  England  were  originally  opposed 
to  the  fashion  of  wearing  long  hair.  In  Massachusetts,  long 
hair  was  made  the  subject  of  legislative  enactments.  But 
throughout  New  England,  it  is  believed  that  laws  regulating 
dress  were  not  usually  enforced  as  other  statutes  were.  The 
beard  was  at  first  worn  in  New  England  by  the  upper  class- 
es, but  gradually  diminished  until  1685,  when  it  was  closely 
shaven  except  in  particular  instances. 

Wigs  were  worn  in  New  England  soon  after  the  middle 
of  the  seventeenth  century.  They  appear  to  have  been  of 
various  colors,  patterns,  and  dimensions,  according  to  the 
taste  of  the  wearer  or  the  fashion  of  the  particular  era  or 
locality.  Judges,  magistrates,  lawyers,  and  gentlemen  gen- 
erally, were  among  the  first  to  adopt  the  custom.     Many  of 

*  The  ring  presented  by  Charles  I.,  to  the  grandmother  of  the  Elder  Winthrop, 
was,  it  will  be  remembered,  dexterously  used  by  the  son  of  the  latter  in  procur- 
ing the  charter  of  Connecticut  from  Charles  II.  In  the  inventory  of  the  widow 
of  Colonel  John  Livingston  of  New  London,  (1736,)  are  mentioned,  "  four  gold 
rings,  one  silver  ring,  one  stoned  ring,  a  ring  with  five  diamonds,  a  pair  of  stoned 
ear-rings,  a  stone  drop  for  the  neck,  and  a  red  stone  for  a  locket."  Caulkins' 
Ilist.  of  New  London,  p.  3G5. 


FEMALE   COSTUME.  443 

the  clergy  subsequently  fell  in  with  it  and  carried  it  to  ex- 
tremes ;  though  others  talked,  preached,  and  prayed  most 
earnestly  for  the  suppression  of  the  "  unchristian  habit."* 
To  a  man  of  commanding  person  and  features,  passed  mid- 
dle age,  the  full  flowing  white  wig  often  gave  a  venerable 
and  dignified  appearance.  Such  appendages,  however,  when 
donned  by  young  men  and  lads,  as  they  frequently  were,  be- 
came mere  caricatures  of  their  original  design.  Wigs  were 
often  powdered,  and  fell  in  long  luxuriant  curls  upon  the 
shoulders.  Of  course  the  supply  of  human  hair  of  light 
color,  or  indeed  of  any  color,  was  far  from  being  equal  to 
the  demand.  Hence,  horses  and  goats  were  shorn  of 
their  superfluous  appendages,  and  the  flaxen  locks  of  chil- 
dren were  cut  off",  and  the  hair  thus  obtained  was  washed  in 
a  peculiar  kind  of  bleaching  suds  and  then  spread  upon  the 
grass  to  whiten  like  linen. f  This  singular  fashion  seems  to 
have  gradually  died  with  the  waning  of  the  last  century, 
though  a  few  individuals  retained  the  use  of  their  wigs 
until  a  more  modern  date. 

The  early  costume  of  the  women  of  Connecticut  seems  to 
have  exhibited  as  gi'eat  a  variety  in  style  and  taste  as  that  of 
the  other  sex.  Ever  ready  to  conform  to  the  peculiar  cir- 
cumstances in  which  Providence  may  have  placed  them,  the 
mothers  and  daughters  of  New  England  cheerfully  submitted 
to  the  privations  incident  to  their  condition.  Here,  in  a 
primitive  wilderness,  with  httle  or  no  society  except  that  of 
men  and  women  as  earnest  and  self-sacrificing  as  themselves, 
we  may  readily  infer  that  for  many  years  the  punctilious 
forms  of  etiquette,  and  the  spirit  of  fashionable  display,  were 
almost  entirely  undeveloped.  Still,  even  in  what  has  been 
characterized  as  the  "home-spun  age,"  the  matrons  and 
maidens  were  not  wanting  either  in  taste  or  skill  in  fitting 
and  perfecting  their  own  garments.     Their  natural  love  of 

*  Mr.  Felt  says  of  Eliot,  tlie  celebrated  apostle  to  the  Indians — "He  imagined 
it  [the  use  of  wigs]  to  be  an  abundant  source  of  calamities  which  had  befallen  our 
land." 

+  Felt,  184, 


444  HISTOEY   OF   CONNECTICUT. 

neatness,  order,  and  beauty,  would  of  itself  enable  them  to 
impart  elegance  and  grace  to  the  most  rustic  costume. 

As  the  outward  circumstances  of  the  planters  gradually 
improved,  and  the  proportion  of  wealthy  emigrants  increas- 
ed, the  wings  of  commerce  were  proportionably  extended  to 
supply  their  growing  wants.  Many  of  the  superfluities  and 
luxuries  of  the  old  world  were  brought  to  our  shores  for  such 
as  were  able  and  disposed  to  purchase  them.  The  fashions 
of  the  father-land  were  in  a  measure  revived.  Silks,  satins, 
laces,  and  other  costly  fabrics,  were  among  the  articles  im- 
ported, and  were  in  great  demand  among  the  rich  and  fash- 
ionable ladies  of  those  times, 

I  design  to  speak  only  of  some  of  the  peculiarities  of  dress 
among  the  women  of  Connecticut  in  former  times. 

Trailing  gowns,  were  more  or  less  in  use  both  in, England 
and  America  for  upwards  of  a  century,  ending  some  sixty 
years  ago.  These  gowns  were  liberally  set  off  with  flounces 
and  furbelows,  with  a  trail  from  half  a  yard  to  a  yard  and  a 
half  in  length,  sweeping  the  floor  or  street  when  allowed  to 
have  its  full  course.  They  were,  however,  often  "  trolioped" — 
that  is,  fastened  up  at  each  side  by  loops ;  frequently  how- 
ever, the  trail  was  carried  by  the  lady  upon  her  arm.* 
Among  the  most  exclusive  class,  especially  in  England,  one 
or  two  pages  were  employed  to  carry  the  trail.  Thus  the 
poet  Cowley,  remarks — "  They  cannot  stir  to  the  next  room 
without  a  page  or  two  to  hold  it  up." 

During  the  last  century,  "hooped  skirts"  were  common. 
The  form  of  them  varied  at  different  periods.  In  1735,  they 
projected  all  around  the  bottom  of  the  skirts  like  a  wheel ; 
and  in  1745,  they  were  increased  at  the  sides  and  lessened  in 
front.  During  the  latter  year,  a  pamphlet  was  published  in 
England,  entitled,  "The  enormous  abomination  of  the  Hoop 
Petticoat,  as  the  fashion  now  is."  In  1757,  after  some  de- 
pression, they  expanded  on  the  right  and  left.  We  are  in- 
formed that  they  were  exceedingly  inconvenient  for  entering 
pew  doors  ;  in  fact,  they  could  have  no  ingress  or  egress  at 

*  Lambert,  200. 


FEMALE   COSTUME. 


445 


such  narrow  apertures,  except  by  taking  a  slight  of  hand  ad- 
vantage of  their  form,  which  was  no  doubt  very  gracefully 
done.* 

Towering  head  dresses  appear  to  have  been  in  use  in  Eng- 
land long  before  the  emigration.  It  is  stated  that  in  1416, 
the  state  apartments  were  enlarged  to  accommodate  such 
kinds  of  attire.  When  reformed  under  Edward  IV.,  in  the 
fifteenth  century,  it  was  a  cone  two  or  three  feet  high,  with 
a  silk  streamer  hanging  down  behind.  Somewhat  similar 
head  dresses,  though  probably  not  so  tall,  and  varying  in 
shape,  were  worn  by  the  ladies  of  Connecticut  down  to  the 
period  of  the  revolution.  They  consisted  of  muslin,  crape, 
lawn  or  lace,  and  constituted  a  chief  item  of  ornamental 
attire. 

Other  articles  of  female  dress  might  be  mentioned,  that 
would  be  regarded  as  unique  at  the  present  day,  but  the 
limits  of  the  work  will  not  afford  room  for  any  very  extended 
treatise  upon  a  topic  in  itself  so  interesting. 

*  See  "  Customs  of  New  England,"  pp.  168,  169. 


r^..    vT^a 


■     1  {■-■m-iW^^^'^v-'  ■'  V3 


^iM 


,  '5-  ^o-t.  i. 


im,- 


THE   OLD   WHITFIELD   HOUSE. 


CHAPTER    XXI. 

THE  ESTABLISHED  EELIGION  OP  CONNECTIC[JT. 

While  the  religious  opinions  of  the  early  founders  of  the 
colony  of  Connecticut,  cannot  with  propriety  be  left  out  of 
its  history,  still,  these  topics  have  been  treated  of  at  so  gi'eat 
length  by  other  authors,  that  I  shall  give  in  this  work  only 
a  brief  outline  of  such  facts  as  appear  to  be  necessary  to  a 
thorough  understanding  of  the  character  of  our  institutions. 

It  has  been  said  in  a  preceding  chapter,  that  the  main 
motive  that  led  to  the  settlement  of  New  England,  was  a 
desire  on  the  part  of  the  emigrants  to  worship  God,  in  a  way 
that  they  believed  would  be  most  acceptable  to  Him.  The 
doctrines  held  by  at  least  a  large  number  of  the  divines,  who 
lived  and  died  in  the  faith  of  the  established  church  of  Eng- 
land, and  whose  writings  are  among  the  bi-ightest  ornaments 
of  biblical  literature,  did  not  differ  materially  from  those  that 
formed  the  basis  of  puritan  belief.  There  were  many  as 
strong  Calvanists  in  the  episcopal  church  of  that  period  as 
the  emigrants  were.*  The  grand  points  of  dispute,  the 
wedges  that  split  off  the  emigrants  from  the  main  English 
trunk,  took  their  shape  and  edge  not  so  much  from  differ- 
ences in  doctrine,  as  in  the  forms  of  church  government. 
The  English  church  had  the  arm  of  the  nation  to  enforce 
conformity,  and  those  puritans  who  could  not  yield  to  the 
demands  made  upon  them,  had  no  refuge  but  in  flight. 

The  organization  of  the  churches  in  Connecticut  was 
very  simple.     The  ministers,  as  has  been  stated  in  a  preced- 

*  Brande  (Encyclopedia,  p.  88,)  says — "  The  articles  of  the  English  church 
have  been  represented  by  different  parties,  as  including  both  to  Arminianism  and 
Calvinism."  Bishops  Davenport,  Sanderson,  Hall,  and  the  archbishops  Ussher 
and  Leighton,  were  Calvinistic  in  their  doctrines,  though  among  the  staunchest  of 
episcopalians.  (See  Coleridge's  "  Aids  to  Reflection,"  pp.  208,  209.)  Bishops 
Taylor,  Whitby,  Ward,  and  others,  maintained  the  Arminian  tenets,  and  wrote 
and  preached  against  Calvinism. 


THE  CLERGY   OF   CONNECTICUT.  447 

ing  chapter,  were  the  leaders  each  of  his  own  people.  Most 
of  the  pastors  brought  their  churches  with  them  from  Eng- 
land, and  of  course  had  a  personal  acquaintance  with  their 
members  and  with  their  families.  This  was  true  of 
Hooker,  Davenport,  Whitfield,  Blackman,  Wareham,  and 
others  of  the  principal  divines  of  this  colony.  These  cap- 
tains of  hundreds  and  captains  of  fifties  were  men  of  no 
ordinary  mould.  Every  one  of  them  possessed  some  strik- 
ing traits  of  character,  that  have  left  their  impress  upon  the 
age  in  which  they  lived ;  not  distinctly  defined  to  the  eye  of 
the  careless  observer,  but  to  him  who  has  familiarized  him- 
self with  the  figures  that  people  the  cloud-land  of  the  past, 
these  shepherds,  standing  upon  the  eminences  whence  their 
flocks  could  be  seen  and  called  by  name,  as  they  fed 
upon  the  green  slopes,  and  cropped  with  the  sweet  nutri- 
ment ;  the  herbs  medicinally  bitter  that  grew  close  by  the 
poisonous  flowers  of  temptation,  these  good  shepherds,  no 
longer  shadowy,  are  seen  through  the  long  twilight  of  his- 
tory to  retain  their  characteristics  of  form  and  feature,  as  if 
they  were  still  in  the  midst  of  those  labors  that  ripened  them 
for  immortality.  So  subtle  and  keen  is  the  vision  of  the 
true  and  faithful  scholar,  whose  whole  heart  is  in  his  work, 
that  it  can  pierce  beyond  the  curtain  that  darkness  lets 
down  before  the  eyes  of  other  men  ;  can  penetrate  through 
the  vapors  of  prejudice  and  ignorance,  as  the  rainbow 
seems  to  penetrate  the  less  ethereal  sphere  of  the  storm- 
cloud  that  it  illuminates.  To  him,  and  to  him  alone,  is  it 
given,  to  see  as  in  a  mirror,  the  great  and  the  good  pass  in  slow 
review  before  him,  so  that  he  shall  be  able  to  distinguish 
them  and  sketch  them  upon  a  canvass  that  shall  be  imper- 
ishable. To  him  they  are  not  all  to  be  set  down  in  the  dead 
and  despised  catalogue  of  fanatics.  On  the  other  hand,  to 
him  the  fearless  Davenport,  with  his  noble  bearing  and 
unshaken  resolution  ;  Hooker,  with  his  beautiful  face,  deep- 
toned  voice,  and  hand  that  "could  put  a  king  in  his 
pocket ;"  Wareham,  whose  self-accusing,  shrinking  eye  was 
often  averted  from   the   battlements   of  the  heavenly   city. 


448  HISTORY   OF   CONNECTICUT. 

whither  his  finger  pointed  the  way  for  others  ;  Blackman,  at 
the  sound  of  whose  farewell  the  sensibilities  of  his  people 
gushed  out  in  sparkling  tears,  as  the  rock  that  was  smitten 
by  the  prophet ;  Whitfield,  whose  clear,  contemplative  soul 
resembled  a  mountain  lake,  reflecting  all  the  objects,  wild  or 
tame,  that  help  to  form  its  solitary  margin,  yet  never  darken 
it,  so  as  to  conceal  its  calm  depths  from  the  dreamer  who 
wanders  there  ;  and  Stone,  who  alternately  disputes  upon 
points  of  church  discipline,  and  prays  for  more  copious  show- 
ers of  God's  grace  ;  to  such  a  scholar,  and  to  him  alone,  all 
these  and  many  more  who  might  be  named  as  conspicuous 
members  of  the  great  household  of  faith,  are  seen  as  indivi- 
dual men  setting  up  the  standard  of  civil  liberty,  by  the 
entrance-gate  of  the  temple  that  they  reared  to  the  Most 
High.  It  is  difiicult  to  estimate  the  influences  of  such  men, 
as  the  early  clergymen  of  Connecticut,  in  laying  the 
foundations  of  a  nation  like  ours. 

In  every  church  organized  according  to  the  old  puritan  plan 
that  pi-evailed  from  the  first  in  Connecticut,  there  was  a  pastor, 
a  teacher,  a  ruling  elder,  and  deacons.*  In  some  of  their 
churches  there  were  exceptions  to  this  rule,  growing  out  of  the 
necessities  or  peculiar  situation  of  the  people  ;  but  the  prin- 
cipal settlements  all  had  a  full  complement  of  these  several 
functionaries.  If  the  church  had  only  a  few  members  and 
very  limited  resources,  it  was  sometimes  obliged  to  content 
itself  with  a  ruling  elder  and  deacons.  The  pastor,  teacher, 
and  elder  were  all  ordained  with  equal  solemnity. 

The  specific  duty  of  the  pastor  was  to  exhort  or  preach 
to  the  people  ;  or,  in  the  language  of  that  day,  "  to  work 
upon  the  will  and  the  affections."  He  was  expected  to 
possess  the  gift  of  eloquent  speech,  and  to  cultivate  the  win- 
ning graces  of  oratory  ;  most  of  all,  the  sinewy,  athletic 
strength  that  could  make  effective  use  of  the  fire  and  the 
hammer  to  break  the  flinty  heart. f 

*  Owen's  "  Gobpcl  Church,"  pp.  8G,  IIG,  120,  128,  129  ;  Hooker's  '•  Survey," 
part  ii.  pp.  4,  20. 

t  Hookers  Survey,  part  ii.  pp.  19,  21  ;  Cambridge  Platform,  chap.  vi. 


CHURCH  OFFICERS.  449 

The  teaclier,  on  the  other  hand,  was  the  private  expounder 
of  the  divine  law,  the  counsellor  whose  learning,  deep  piety, 
calm  judgment,  and  refined  experience  could  be  depended  upon 
in  doubtful  matters.  He  had  immediate  charge  of  all  compli- 
cated and  knotty  doctrinal  questions,  and  difficult  cases 
of  conscience.  He  was  the  nursery  teacher,  who  prepared 
the  feeble  reason  and  illuminated  the  darkened  understand- 
ing for  the  school  of  church-fellowship.  He  also  recalled 
the  backsliding  christian,  and  set  his  face  toward  Zion.  If 
there  was  no  teacher  in  any  particular  church,  the  pastor 
supplied  the  offices  of  advocate  and  counsellor.* 

The  ruling  elder  represented  that  part  of  the  executive 
power  that  did  not  fall  specifically  within  the  province  of 
the  pastor.  He  was  a  kind  of  vice-executive  officer.  His 
business  was  to  keep  strict  watch  over  all  the  brethren  and 
sisters,  and  see  that  they  demeaned  themselves  in  an  orderly 
and  godly  manner.  It  was  his  duty  to  warn  the  careless, 
admonish  the  wayward,  and  to  present  the  incorrigible  be- 
fore the  proper  tribunal  for  discipline.  He  was  also  to  go 
from  house  to  house  like  a  ministering  angel,  and  visit  the 
sick  and  the  afflicted,  and  pray  with  them.  In  the  absence 
of  the  pastor  and  teacher  he  was  also  to  pray  with  the  con- 
gregation on  the  sabbath,  and  other  stated  days  of  worship, 
and  expound  the  scriptures  to  them. 

The  office  of  deacon  is  frequently  alluded  to  in  the  new 
testament.f  though  different  denominations  have  differed  as 
to  the  position  and  duties  of  the  officer  called  by  that  title. 
Among  the  English  puritans  and  their  successors  in  New 
England,  the  specific  duties  of  the  deacons  were,  as  stated 
by  Owen,  to  provide  for  the  poor  of  the  parish,  and  to  man- 
age all  other  affairs  of  the  church  of  a  secular  nature  ;  such 
as  providing  for  the  place  of  the  church  assemblies  ;  pro- 
curing and  distributing  the  sacramental  elements  ;  "  keeping, 
collecting,  and  disposing  of  the  stock  of  the  church,  for  the 
maintenance  of  its  officers,  and  incidences,  especially  in  the 

*  Owen's  "  True  Gospel  Church,"  121,  &c. 
t  Acts,  vi ;  1  Tim.  iii.  8,  13,  &c. 
29 


450  HISTORY  OF  CONNECTICUT. 

time  of  trouble  or  persecution."*  It  was  furthermore  the 
duty  of  these  officers,  according  to  the  same  author,  "to 
acquaint  the  church  of  the  present  necessity  of  the  poor; 
to  stir  up  particular  members  of  it  into  a  free  contribution 
according  to  their  abihty ;  to  admonish  those  who  are  neg- 
ligent herein,  who  give  not  according  to  their  proportion ; 
and  to  acquaint  the  elders  of  the  church  with  those  who  per- 
sist in  a  neglect  of  their  duty."t 

In  regard  to  the  qualifications  of  persons  for  this  office, 
those  specified  in  1  Tim.  iii.  8,  13,  were  deemed  requisite 
and  indispensable.  The  candidate  having  been  duly  ap- 
proved, was  solemnly  set  apart  by  prayer  and  the  imposi- 
tion of  hands,  according  to  the  directions  contained  in  Acts 
vi.  6. 

The  number  of  deacons  was  not  uniform,  but  was  regula- 
ted mainly  by  the  size  of  the  church  and  congregation.  Two 
or  four  were  the  more  usual  numbers  ;  though  in  some  of 
the  churches  there  were  seven — usually  styled  the  "seven 
pillars,"  whose  duties  appear  sometimes  to  have  partaken  of 
those  of  elders  as  well  as  of  deacons. 

During  the  first  twenty  years  after  the  settlement,  there 
was  little  or  no  difference  of  opinion  among  the  ministers 
and  churches  of  Connecticut,  as  to  the  requisites  and  terms 
of  church-membership.  The  applicant  was  not  only 
required  to  give  his  solemn  public  assent  to  the  confession 
of  faith,  and  to  enter  into  covenant  with  God  and  His  peo- 
ple faithfully  to  discharge  all  public  and  private  christian 
duties,  but  he  must  give  a  minute  account  of  his  religious 
experience,  and  of  the  radical  change  that  had  taken  place 
in  his  heart  and  life. 

About  1655,  however,  a  strong  party  began  to  manifest 
itself,  who  were  for  admitting  all  persons  of  regular  life  to  a 
full  communion  in  the  churches,  upon  their  making  a  gene- 
ral public  confession  of  their  belief  in  the  christian  religion, 
without  any  inquiry  with  respect  to  their  experience,  and 

*  "  The  True  Nature  of  a  Gospel  Church  and  its  Government,"  by  Rev. 
John  Owen,  IJ.D.,  p.  184. 
+  Owen,  185. 


OWNING  THE  COVENANT,  451 

were  for  treating  all  baptized  persons  as  members   of  the 
church,  upon  their  "  owning  the  covenant."  * 

This  subject  was  carried  to  the  General  Assembly,  and 
that  body  applied  to  the  General  Courts  of  the  several  neigh- 
boring colonies  for  advice.  The  result  was,  a  general 
council  was  called,  which  assembled  at  Boston,  June  4,  1657. 
This  council  gave  an  elaborate  answer  to  the  twenty-one 
questions  that  had  been  propounded  to  them  concerning  the 
matters  in  controversy — the  principal  of  which  had  special 
reference  to  church-membership  and  baptism. f  The  sub- 
stance of  their  decision  was,  that  it  was  the  duty  of  adults,  who 
had  been  baptized  in  infancy,  "  to  own  the  covenant  they 
made  with  their  parents,  by  entering  thereinto  in  their  own 
persons  ;"  that  the  church  was  obligated  "  to  call  upon 
them  for  the  performance  thereof;"  and  in  case  of  refusal, 
they  were  liable  to  be  censured  by  the  church.  Those  "own- 
ing the  covenant,"  and  not  scandalous  in  their  lives,  were 
allowed  to  have  their  children  baptized.^ 

This  decision  seems  not  to  have  been  acceptable  to  the 
churches  of  Connecticut,  and  certainly  did  not  end  the  con- 
troversy. In  1662  the  General  Court  recommended  the 
same  measures  to  the  churches ;  and  many  of  them  subse- 
quently adopted  the  practice,  though  others  opposed  it  stead- 
fastly to  the  last. 

-  This  was  the  origin  of  what  has  since  been  known  by 
"  the  half  way  covenant,"  which  a  hundred  years  later  was 
so  powerfully  opposed  by  Edwai'ds,  Whitfield,  Buel,  and 
other  eloquent  "  reformers"  of  that  day. 

The  churches  of  Connecticut  acted  upon  the  belief  that 
the  bishops  and  presbyters  were  only  different  names  for  the 
same  office,  and  that  all  pastors  who  were  regularly  devoted 
to  the  ministry  of  the  gospel  were  bishops  in  a  scriptural 
sense.     They  also  held  that  in  accordance  with  the   early 

*  TrumbuU,  297,  298. 

t  These  answers  were  afterwards  printed  in  London  with  the  title,  "  A  Dispute 
tion  concerning  church  members  and  their  children." 
t  Trumbull,  i.  303,  304. 


452  HISTORY   OF  CONNECTICUT. 

practice  of  the  church,  every  pastor  was  for  the  most  part 
confined  to  his  own  cliurch  and  congregation,  whom  he 
could  keep  under  his  own  eye,  and  who  might  have  the  ben- 
efit of  his  personal  example.  This  rule,  however,  did  not 
prevent  the  pastor  of  one  church  from  exchanging  with  his 
neighbor  of  the  next  settlement  at  convenient  intervals ;  but 
even  this  exchange  was  only  for  the  ordinary  religious  ser- 
vices. It  was  for  some  time  after  the  emigration  held  to 
be  irregular  for  any  minister  to  administer  the  sacrament  or 
the  rite  of  baptism,  except  in  his  immediate  jurisdiction.* 

The  churches  of  Connecticut  did  not  look  upon  ordina- 
tions as  constituting  the  essentials  of  the  ministerial  office. 
Ordination  was  nothing  more  than  inducting  the  pastor  elect 
into  office,  or  recommending  him  and  his  spiritual  labors  to  the 
blessing  of  his  Divine  Master.  The  form  of  ordination  was 
very  simple.  If  there  was  a  presbytery  in  the  church 
where  the  ceremonial  was  to  be  performed,  the  laying  on  of 
hands  was  done  by  them  ;  if  not,  the  church  selected  from 
its  members  a  number  of  the  most  venerable  and  exemplary 
to  act  as  elders  for  the  occasion.  This  mode  of  ordination 
and  these  views  as  to  its  relative  importance  and  signifi- 
cance, were  by  no  means  peculiar  to  the  Connecticut 
churches.  They  were  supported  by  the  high  authority  of 
St.  Augustine,  St.  Chrysostom,  Zanch,  Bucer,  and  even  by 
the  great  Melancthon  himself,  an  interpreter  of  the  scrip- 
tures unsurpassed  since  the  days  of  Paul  for  close  ratiocina- 
tion, and  dispassionate,  calm  judgment. f 

The  Connecticut  churches  were  congregational.  In  other 
words,  they  held  that  the  right  to  choose  and  to  settle  its  own 
minister,  discipline  its  own  members,  and  to  perform  all  juri- 
dical functions,  was  vested  in  each  individual  church,  and 
that  no  external  organization,  whether  under  the  name  of 
presbytery,  synod,  general  council,  or  assembly,  had  any 
power  to  interfere  with  the  exercise  of  that  right.  They 
might  advise  and  counsel,  and  their  opinions  were  held  to 
be  entitled  to  reverence  ;  but  they  could  neither  command 

*  Hooker,  Trumbull,  Owen.  t  Hooker's  Survey. 


THEIR   REGARD   FOR  THE   BIBLE,  453 

nor  compel.  The  individual  church,  through  its  regular 
channels  of  communication,  and  with  the  bible  for  its  guide, 
was,  under  God,  to  be  the  ultimate  arbiter  of  all  matters 
arising  within  its  own  jurisdiction.*  Whether  they  always 
rightly  interpreted  the  bible,  is  to  be  settled  by  men  who  are 
most  competent  to  judge  of  matters  too  mysterious  and 
solemn  for  the  pen  of  the  historian.  However  this  may  be, 
I  suppose  it  will  not  be  questioned,  even  by  their  bitterest 
enemies,  that  they  read  it  with  as  much  avidity  as  any  class  of 
men  ever  did,  and  earnestly  sought  to  follow  its  teachings. 
Indeed,  the  bible  was  the  constant  companion  of  the 
early  inhabitants  of  Connecticut.  The  emigrant  studied 
it  by  day  and  by  night.  He  taught  it  to  his  children 
with  the  same  constancy  that  supplied  them  with  daily 
food,  and  the  burden  of  his  prayers  was,  that  they  might 
understand  it  in  its  deepest,  most  spiritual  significance. 
The  bible  was  the  pole-star  of  the  colony.  Its  precepts  are 
written  in  letters  of  light  upon  our  early  records.  Its  doc- 
trines were  discussed  in  the  field  where  the  laborers  bent  over 
the  ridges  of  the  corn ;  and  in  the  heart  of  the  great  forest, 
while  the  woodman  sat  in  the  still  noon  leaning  against  the 
trunk  of  the  oak  that  he  had  felled,  he  pondered  its  precepts 
in  secret.  It  was  carried  into  the  battle  field  by  the  soldier, 
and  with  an  honest  joy  when  the  victory  was  won,  its 
promises  were  read  anew.  Children  were  named  from  its 
great  prophets,  poets,  and  heroes. 

At  the  time  of  the  union  of  New  Haven  and  Connecticut 
there  were  in  the  colony  only  seventeen  hundred  families,  or 
between  eight  thousand  and  nine  thousand  inhabitants.  To 
preach  to  this  small  number,  the  services  of  about  twenty 
ministers  were  put  in  constant  requisition.  This  would 
make  on  an  average  one  preacher  to  eighty-five  families.  In 
several  of  the  new  plantations,  thirty  families  maintained  a 
minister;  and  out  of  the  large  towns,  forty  families  was 
thought  to  be  a  good  congregation. f     When  it  is  remember- 

*  Trumbull,  i.  284  ;  Cambridge  Platform,  ch.  xvi.  t  Trumbull. 


454  HISTOKY  OF  CONNECTICUT. 

ed  that  most  of  these  clergymen  were  gentlemen  of  uncom- 
mon powers  of  mind,  of  elegant  manners,  and  thorough-bred 
scholars,  in  an  age  when  scholars  were  rare,  it  will  be  seen 
that  no  people  have  valued  religious  instruction  more  than 
our  fathers  did,  and  that  seldom  if  ever  in  the  history  of  the 
world  has  a  people  been  more  faithfully  taught.  At  no  time 
since  that  day  has  there  been  such  a  class  of  educated  gen- 
tlemen in  New  England  as  were  the  emigrant  pastors  of 
Connecticut.  The  generation  of  clergymen  who  succeeded 
them,  were  of  course  their  inferiors  in  education,  as  the 
institutions  of  a  new  country  are  less  thorough  than  those  of 
an  old  one. 

I  have  said  that  the  qualifications  for  church-membership 
caused  many  dissensions  among  the  churches.  As  it  has 
been  thought  important  to  give  these  disputes  a  prominence 
in  times  past,  that  seems  not  to  have  belonged  to  them  ori- 
ginally, I  am  hardly  at  liberty  to  pass  them  by  without  some 
notice.  They  possess  an  interest  to  the  antiquarian  that  the 
general  reader  has  never  yet  found  in  them,  and  those  honest 
men  who  have  collected  and  perpetuated  them  in  books,  as 
they  were  known  to  be  friendly  to  the  fame  of  the  state, 
have  evinced,  it  must  be  admitted,  not  only  a  desire  to  tell 
the  whole  truth,  but  a  noble  indifference  to  the  opinion  of 
the  world  and  a  confidence  in  the  greatness  of  those  men 
whose  characters  could  bear  to  be  set  in  so  unfavorable  a 
light  and  still  elicit  the  admiration  of  posterity.  I  doubt  if 
there  can  be  found  in  the  history  of  any  other  people  so 
many  industrious  proclaimers  of  the  ecclesiastical  bickerings 
and  neighborhood,  nay  family  quarrels,  of  the  founders  of  its 
institutions,  as  have  been  set  forth  by  respectable  writers, 
who  have  spent  their  lives  in  trying  to  do  honor  to  Connecti- 
cut in  this  apparently  equivocal  way.  I  say,  apparently 
equivocal,  for  doubtless  the  time  will  come  when  such  minute 
details  of  the  imperfections  of  human  nature  will  be  regarded 
with  more  indulgence  than  now,  as  they  will  be  seen  to  have 
indicated  a  transition  from  the  dead  calm  of  formalism,  to 


EEV.   HENRY  SMITH.  455 

the  lively,  healthful  atmosphere  of  religious  toleration,  and 
philosophical  inquiry. 

The  first  of  these  controversies,  as  has  been  stated  in  a 
former  chapter,  originated  at  Wethersfield,  and  might  never 
have  happened  had  Mr.  Phillips,  the  pastor  of  the  first  emi- 
grants, been  induced  to  accompany  them  to  Connecticut. 
They  had  at  first  no  settled  minister,  and  for  several  years 
were  in  a  state  of  confusion  that  was  beyond  the  reach  of 
their  best  spiritual  advisers,  until  the  sagacious  Davenport 
suggested  that  as  they  could  not  live  together  they  should 
separate.  This  good  counsel  led  to  the  settlement  of  Stam- 
ford, and  could  not  have  been  continued  beyond  the  spring 
of  1641,  when  Mr.  Coe  and  Mr.  Ward,  with  their  party,  re- 
moved from  Wethersfield.  The  particulars  of  this  quarrel 
can  hardly  be  known  at  this  remote  day,  as  no  documentary 
memorial  of  it  is  known  to  exist. 

In  1641,  and  after  Prudden,  Sherman,  and  Denton  had  all 
preached  to  the  people,  and  in  time  had  sought  other  and 
more  quiet  fields  of  labor,  the  Rev.  Henry  Smith  entered 
upon  his  duties  as  the  first  regular  pastor  in  Wethersfield. 
He  was  a  gentleman  of  good  family,  and  he  is,  aside  from  the 
interest  that  he  excites  in  us  as  the  patriarch  of  one  of  the  best 
sustained  and  most  accomplished  families  in  New  England, 
entitled  to  our  regard  as  a  gentleman  of  uncommon  culture, 
refinement,  and  firmness.  He  probably  arrived  in  Boston  in 
1637,  as  he  and  Mrs.  Smith  were  admitted  into  the  commun- 
ion of  the  church  at  Watertown  on  the  5th  of  December, 
of  that  year.*  At  what  precise  period  he  removed  to  Con- 
necticut, is  not  certainly  known,  but  he  was  a  resident  thei'e  at 
the  time  of  the  division  of  the  lots  on  the  east  side  of  the  Con- 
necticut river,  in  1639-40,  as  he  received  a  farm  of  consider- 

*  Mr.  Smith  brought  over  from  England,  among  other  articles  of  value,  a  silver 
tankard  with  his  family  coat  of  arms,  beautifully  engraved  upon  it.  This  venerable 
piece  of  silver,  probably  two  hundred  and  fifty  years  old,  is  still  in  excellent  con- 
dition, and  is  now  in  the  hands  of  his  great,  great,  great  grandson,  Wm.  Mather 
Smith,  Esquire,  of  Sharon,  the  only  son  of  His  Excellency,  John  Cotton  Smith, 
the  last  charter  governor. 


456  HISTORY   OF  CONNECTICUT. 

able  size  at  that  time,  which  descended  to  his  son  Samuel.* 
He  did  not  find  his  task  in  Wethersfield  a  very  easy  one,  as 
there  were  still  left  some  restless  spirits  in  his  church  and 
congregation.  He  was,  from  the  beginning  of  his  ministry, 
the  victim  of  suspicions  the  most  unfounded,  and  accusations 
the  most  bitter. 

In  1643,  an  application  was  made  to  the  General  Court, 
involving  charges  against  him  that  were  found  on  investiga- 
tion to  be  false. t  His  ministry  terminated  with  his  death  in 
1648. 

Just  before  the  decease  of  Mr.  Smith,  died  Mr.  Thomas 
Hooker,  the  pastor  of  the  church  in  Hartford.  No  minister 
in  New  England  possessed  such  unbounded  sway  over  popu- 
lar assemblies  as  did  this  truly  wonderful  man.  He  was  born 
at  Marshfield,  in  the  county  of  Leicester,  England,  in  the 
year  1586,  and  graduated  at  Emanuel  College,  Cambridge, 
at  a  very  early  age.  He  was  soon  promoted  to  a  fellowship 
there,  and  was  not  long  in  acquiring  a  high  reputation  for 
learning  and  ability.  He  was  called  "  the  hght  of  the  New 
England  churches,"  and  well  merited  the  appellation ;  for  in 
his  clear  manner  of  setting  forth  the  truth,  his  intimate  ac- 
quaintance with  the  doctrines  of  the  bible,  his  bold  eloquence 
and  the  pungency  of  his  illustrations,  he  had  few  equals  and 
no  superiors  in  New  England.  Hooker  was  to  Connecticut 
what  Cotton  was  to  Massachusetts,  and  what  Davenport  was 
to  New  Haven.     They  were  all  men  of  such  marked  traits 

*  Dr.  Chapin's  Hist,  of  Glastenbury,  p.  34. 

t  The  committee  appointed  by  the  General  Court  to  investigate  these  charges, 
reported  on  the  13th  of  April,  1643.  This  committee,  among  other  things,  say, — 
"  We  find  also  that  many  of  those  who  put  up  their  names  for  removal,  were  not 
induced  thereunto  by  any  dislike  or  engagement  they  have  in  the  present  quarrels, 
but /or  want  of  lots  and  other  considerations." 

On  the  10th  of  November  of  the  same  year,  the  General  Court  ordered  that — • 

"  Mr.  Chaplin,  for  divulging  and  setting  his  hand  to  a  paper  called  a  declara- 
tion, tending  to  the  defamation  of  Mr.  Smith,  is  fined  £10. 

"  Francis  Norton,  for  setting  his  hand  to  the  said  writing,  is  fined  £5. 

"  John  Goodridge,  for  setting  his  hand  to  said  writing,  40s. 

"  Mr.  Plum,  for  preferring  a  roll  of  grievances  against  Mr.  Smith,  and  failing  of 
proof  in  the  prosecution  thereof,  is  fined  £10." 


EEV.   THOMAS  HOOKER.  457 

of  character,  that  perhaps  no  one  could  assign  to  any  one  of 
them  the  highest  place.  Davenport  might  be  compared,  in 
his  opposition  to  the  passions  of  the  people  and  in  the  solidity 
of  his  character,  to  one  of  those  sheer  promontories  that  the 
mariner  sees  as  he  sails  along  the  New  England  coast,  defy- 
ing the  storms  and  frowning  down  upon  the  white  waves 
that  recoil  from  its  base ;  Cotton,  to  a  limpid  river  flowing 
between  steep  hills  that  feed  its  current  with  the  unfailing 
resources  of  bubbling  springs  gushing  out  of  the  natural  fis- 
sures of  the  rocks,  while  they  crowd  it  into  a  channel  that 
allows  it  more  depth  than  surface,  with  here  and  there  a 
basin  among  the  more  lofty  and  retreating  mountains,  that 
expose,  indeed,  a  broader  area  where  the  warm  beams  of  the 
sun-light  may  bathe  themselves,  yet  take  away  nothing  from 
the  boldness  of  the  shore ;  Hooker,  to  the  same  river  further 
on  in  its  course,  its  volume  increased  by  the  tributaries  that 
drain  larger  and  wilder  regions — sometimes  turbid,  too,  with 
the  added  violence  of  the  spring  floods,  having  a  strength 
and  vastness  of  sweep  always  self-sustained  and  convincing. 
Hooker  was  not  only  the  most  attractive  pulpit  orator  in 
New  England,  but  he  was  equally  distinguished  by  the  fer- 
vency and  pathos  of  his  prayers,  which,  we  are  told,  were 
like  Jacob's  ladder  "  wherein  the  nearer  he  came  to  the  end, 
the  nearer  he  drew  to  heaven."  He  was  well  skilled  in  the 
governing  motives  of  men,  and  on  that  account  was  much 
consulted  in  matters  relating  to  church  discipline  and  the 
general  management  of  ecclesiastical  affairs.  In  his  chari- 
ties he  was  very  munificent.  His  chief  conflict  was  with 
himself,  in  striving  to  subdue  the  irregularities  of  a  tempera- 
ment naturally  vehement  and  impetuous.  In  his  domestic 
and  social  relations  he  was  very  happy,  and  few  men  have 
been  more  deeply  loved. 

In  person,  Hooker  was  tall  and  elegant,  his  features  classi- 
cal, his  eye  thoughtful  yet  piercing,  his  voice  rich  and  of 
great  compass,  and  his  manner  graceful  and  majestic.  He 
possessed  physical  as  well  as  moral  courage  in  a  high  degree. 
Even  Mason  was  overawed  by  the  noble  bearing  of  this 


458  HISTOEY  OP   CONNECTICUT. 

soldier  of  the  cross  when  following  the  little  army,  that  was 
about  to  go  in  search  of  the  Pequots,  to  the  brink  of  the 
river  that  he  might  dismiss  them  with  his  benediction,  his 
eye  flashed  as  he  bade  them  "  in  martial  power  to  fight  the 
battles  of  the  Lord  and  of  his  people." 

He  died  at  Hartford,  of  a  fever,  on  the  7th  of  July,  1647, 
in  the  61st  year  of  his  age.  "  I  am  going  to  receive  mercy," 
said  the  patriarch  to  a  friend  who  stood  by  his  bedside ; 
then  closing  his  eyes  tranquilly,  a  smile  playing  about 
his  lips,  he  took  his  leave  of  a  world  that  satisfies  least 
of  all  a  soul  of  such  boundless  energies  and  such  an  ethereal 
mould.* 

Aside  from  Davenport,  the  founder  of  New  Haven,  that 
place  was  for  many  years  distinguished  for  the  wisdom  and 
ability  of  its  clergymen.  Of  these  Hook,  Street,  and  Pier- 
pont  are  among  the  most  eminent.  James  Pierpont  was 
born  at  Roxbury,  Massachusetts,  in  1659,  graduated  at  Har- 
vard in  1681,  and  was  ordained  at  New  Haven  in  1686. 
Descended  from  an  illustrious  family,  and  gifted  to  a  high 
degree  with  intellectual  endowments,  eloquent  speech,  a 
graceful  person,  handsome  features,  and  manners  the  most 
courtly  and  winning,  he  appears  to  have  been  from  early 
youth  too  intently  occupied  with  the  mission  of  saving  the 
souls  of  his  fellow  men,  ever  to  think  of  himself.  I  suppose, 
of  all  the  clergymen  whose  names  belong  to  the  early  history 
of  New  England,  Pierpont  was  the  most  lofty  and  pure  in 
his  aspirations,  and  of  the  most  spiritual  temper.  With  none 
of  the  sternness  of  Davenport,  without  the  despondency  of 
Wareham,  and  free  from  the  impetuous  moods  that  proved 
such  thorns  in  the  pillow  of  Hooker,  his  words,  like  the  live 
coals  from  the  altar  in  the  hand  of  the  angel,  "  touched  and 
purified  the  lips"  of  those  who  listened  to  his  teachings. 
His  moral  nature  was  so  softly  diffused  over  his  church 
and  people,  that  they  appeared  to  lose  themselves  in 
the  absorbing  element,    as   dark  forms  seem  sometimes  in 

*  See  Biography  of  Rev.  Thomas  Hooker,  by  Rev.  E.  W.  Hooker,  D.D. 


EEV.   JAMES   PIEEPONT,  459 

pleasant  summer  days,  to  dissolve  in  an  atmosphere  of  liquid 
light.* 

*  1.  Robert  de  Pierrepont,  who  came  to  England  with  William  the  Conqueror, 
and  possessed  estates  in  Suffolk  and  Sussex,  amounting  to  ten  knights'  fees — all  of 
which  he  held  of  William,  Earl  of  Warren. 

2.  William  de  Pierrepont,  son  and  heir,  (time  of  William  II.) 

3.  Hugh  de  Pierrepont,  son  and  heir,  (time  of  Henry  II.) 

4.  William  de  Pierrepont,  owner  of  the  Lordship  of  Halliwell,  in  Lancashire. 

5.  Sir  Robert  de  Pierrepont,  knight. 

6.  Henry  de  Pierrepont,  of  Holbeck,  Woodhouse,  county  of  Nottingham. 

7.  Sir  Henry  de  Pierrepont,  of  Holme  Pierrepont,  in  the  right  of  his  wife, 
Annora,  sole  daughter  of  Michael  Manvers,  Lord  of  Holme.  He  died  A.  D., 
1291. 

8.  Sir  Robert  de  Pierrepont,  of  Holme  Pierrepont,  governor  of  New  Castle, 
married  Sarah,  daughter  of  Sir  John  Hering,  knight,  of  Derbyshire,  1308. 

9.  Henry  Pierrepont,  of  PInlme  Pierrepont,  only  son  and  heir,  married  Mar- 
garet, daughter  of  Sir  Wm.  Fitz  Williams  of  Emly,  knight. 

10.  Sir  Edmund  Pierrepont,  son  and  heir,  knight,  married  Joan,  only  daugh- 
ter of  Sir  John  Monboucher,  of  Nottinghamshire,  knight.  He  died  in  1370,  and 
was  buried  at  Holme  Pierrepont. 

11.  Sir  Edmund  Pierrepont,  son  and  heir,  married  Frances,  daughter  of 
Thomas  Kingsman.     He  was  knighted  in  1422. 

12.  Sir  Henry  Pierrepont,  son  and  heir,  married  Ellen,  daughter  of  Sir 
Nicholas  Langford,  knight. 

13.  Henry  Pierrepont,  only  son  and  heir,  married  Tomasin,  daughter  of  Sir 
John  Melton,  of  Ashton,  Yorkshire. 

14.  Sir  Francis  Pierrepont,  knight,  son  and  heir,  married  Margaret,  daughter 
of  John  Burdon,  Esq. 

15.  Sir  William  Pierrepont,  son  and  heir,  married  Jane,  daughter  of  Sir 
Richard  Empson,  knight.     He  was  knighted  in  1513. 

16.  Sir  George  Pierrepont,  son  and  heir,  married  Winnifred,  daughter  of  Wil- 
liam Thwaites,  of  Essex.     He  was  knighted  in  1547,  and  died  1564.* 

17.  William  Pierrepont,  of  Brereton,  Lancaster  county,  son  and  heir,  married 
Elizabeth. 

18.  James  Pierrepont,  who  died  at  Ipswich,  Mass. 

19.  John  Pierrepont,  born  in  London  in  1619  ;  admitted  a  freeman  in  Massa- 
chusetts in  1652;  representative  in  1672;  died  Dec.  7,  1682.  He  married 
Thankful  Starr,  and  had  five  sons,  viz.,  Benjamin,  Joseph,  Ebenezer,  James,  and 
John. 

20.  Rev.  James  Pierpont,  of  New  Haven,  born  in  1659;  and  died  in  1714. 

*  Sir  George  Pierrepont,  had  a  son  Robert  (older  than  William,)  who  was  created  Earl  of  Kings- 
ton in  1628.  His  lordship's  last  male  descendant,  Evelyn  Pierrepont,  second  duke  of  Kingston,  died 
in  1773  without  issue,  when  the  honors  and  estates  ovght  to  have  descended  to  the  heirs  of  William, 
■who  were  then  and  still  are  in  America.  Instead  of  this,  however,  they  went  to  the  nephew  of  the 
Duke,  Charles  Meadows,  Esq.,  who  assumed  the  surname  of  Pierrepont,  and  was  created  Earl 
Manvers. 


460  HISTORY   OF  CONNECTICUT. 

The  next  great  controversy  in  order  of  time,  and  one  of 
the  most  important  that  ever  occurred  in  New  England  on 
account  of  its  duration,  the  bitterness  of  feeling  by  which  it 
was  characterized,  and  the  exalted  character  of  the  men  who 
participated  in  it,  was  that  which  commenced  in  the  first 
church  in  Hartford  about  the  middle  of  the  seventeenth 
century.  It  appears  to  have  originated  in  a  difference  of 
opinion  between  the  Rev.  Samuel  Stone,  pastor  of  that 
church,  and  Mr.  William  Goodwin,  its  ruling  elder,  on  some 
nice  points  of  Congregationalism.  It  was  claimed  that  per- 
sons had  been  baptized  and  admitted  to  the  church  in  an 
informal  manner,  and  without  the  proper  qualifications ; 
though  Dr.  Mather  intimates  that  it  was  difficult,  even  at 
the  time  of  the  controversy,  to  ascertain  what  were  the  pre- 
cise points  of  variance.  The  dispute,  however,  spread  like 
a  contagion,  until  nearly  all  the  churches  in  the  colony  be- 
came more  or  less  affected  by  it.  The  local  and  secular 
affairs  of  societies,  towns,  and  of  the  entire  commonwealth, 
were  to  a  great  extent  influenced  by  the  all-absorbing  topic 
of  thought  and  conversation.  The  General  Court  frequently 
interposed  its  advice  and  orders,  with  a  view  to  quiet  the 
asitation,  and  ecclesiastical  bodies  as  often  met  to  consider 
and  decide  upon  the  merits  of  the  controversy  ;  but  for  a 
long  time  without  avail.  About  the  year  1640,  in  conse- 
quence of  the  death  or  removal  of  many  of  the  princi- 
pal belligerents,  both  the  church  and  state,  so  long  the  vic- 
tims of  discord,  were  again  restored  to  comparative  good 
order. 

Among  those  who  were  disaffected  with  Mr.  Stone  and 
steadfastly  adhered  to  Elder  Goodwin  throughout  the  contro- 
versy, were  Governor  Webster,  Mr.  Cullick,  Mr.  Bacon,  and 
Mr.  Steel,  all  leading  men  both  in  the  church  and  in  the 
colony.* 

By  this  time  the  church  at  Wethersfield  had  again  become 
ripe  for  dissensions.  Probably  within  two  years  after  the 
death  of  Mr.  Smith,  but  at  what  precise  date  is  not  known, 
*  Trumbull,  i.  296,  301. 


[1656.]  CONTEOVERSY  AT  WETHERSFIELD.  461 

the  Rev.  John  Russell  was  called  by  the  church  and  ordained 
there,  so  far  as  appears,  without  opposition.  The  first  part 
of  his  ministry  was  quiet  and  seemed  to  promise  well  for 
the  future.  But  the  Hartford  controversy  gradually  ex- 
tended into  his  church,  and  some  other  elements  of  a  very 
combustible  character,  were  made  to  feed  the  flame.  Among 
other  things,  Mr.  Russell  appears  to  have  been  a  witness 
in  a  law  suit,  and  to  have  testified  in  a  way  that  was  severely 
animadverted  upon  by  Lieutenant  John  Hollister,  a  promi- 
nent member  of  his  church.  Mr.  Russell  held  the  same 
views  with  Mr.  Stone  of  Hartford  in  relation  to  church  gov- 
ernment and  discipline,  and  without  giving  the  offending 
member  an  opportunity  to  have  a  hearing,  or  even  the  bene- 
fit of  a  vote  of  the  church,  he  privately  excommunicated 
him  in  1656,  and  afterwards  refused  to  give  his  reasons  for 
such  a  summary  proceeding  when  they  were  demanded  by 
Mr.  Hollister.*  Had  Mr.  Russell'  been  anxious  to  test  the 
practical  workings  of  his  plan  of  church  government,  he 
could  hardly  have  chosen  a  more  favorable  subject  than  one 
of  Captain  Mason's  military  officers — a  gentleman  of  un- 
doubted probity,  an  experienced  member  of  the  General 
Court,  and  a  man  not  likely  to  be  outdone  by  Mr.  Russell,  in 
the  steadiness  of  his  purposes  and  the  obstinacy  of  his  resist- 
ance. Besides  his  own  natural  force  of  character,  Hol- 
lister had  married  a  daughter  of  Richard  Treat,  Esquire,!  one 
of  the  most  formidable  opponents  in  the  colony,  and  could 
bring  into  the  quarrel  an  array  of  names  that  the  General 
Court  would  hardly  treat  with  contempt. 

The  whole  town  was  of  course  thrown  into  a  state  of 
excitement  at  this  unusual  war  waged  by  a  clergyman 
against  a  member  of  his  church.  A  petition  was  prepared 
and  signed  by  the  excommunicated  member,  four  other  male 
and  six  female  members  of  the  church,  and  thirty-eight 
others,  probably  all  members  of  the  society,  many  of  whom 
(as  will  be  seen  by  referring  to  the  subjoined  note  and  docu- 

*  Dr.  Chapin's  Hist,  of  Glastenbury,  p.  35  ;  Cothren's  Hist,  of  Woodbury. 
•[•  Chapin,  185. 


462 


HISTORY   OF  CONNECTICUT. 


ment,*  )  were  men  of  high  position — praying  the  Court  to 
reHeve  the  apphcants  from  the  burden  of  a  minister  who  had 
"taken  a  scandalous  and  grievous  oath,    acknowledged  by 

*  In  this  singular  paper,  a  copy  of  whieh  is  here  given,  it  will  be  seen  that  the 
church  members  signed  by  themselves,  first  the  individual  aggrieved,  followed  by 
the  other  male  members ;  then  the  female  members,  with  Mrs.  Treat,  the  wife  of 
Richard  and  mother  of  Governor  Treat,  at  the  head,  and  next  to  her,  Mrs.  Hollister, 
her  daughter,  the  wife  of  the  principal  applicant.  These  male  and  female  names  are 
separated  with  as  much  decency  as  their  owners  would  have  observed  in  the  meet- 
ing house  on  the  Sabbath.     The  remaining  signers  were  not  church  members. 

"  To  the  right  Worshipful,  the  Governor  and  Deputy  Governor,  the  Worship- 
ful Magistrates,  and  Deputies,  assembled  at  Hartford  in  This  Honored  Court, 
your  humble  petitioners  wish  increase  of  all  felicity.     August  17th,  1658. 

"  We,  inhabitants  of  Wethersfield,  are  necessitated  to  implore  the  aid  and 
assistance  of  this  Honored  Court,  and  thereafter  by  right  of  an  order  made  last 
March ;  for  Mr.  Russell,  as  we  conceive,  is  not  our  settled  and  approved  minister : 
First,  He  having  sent  us  a  vrriting,  in  the  Spring,  to  provide  for  ourselves  lest  we 
be  destitute,  and  we  having  professed,  we  look  upon  ourselves  as  free  by  answer 
of  our  committee,  nor  can  we  close  with  him,  and  are  afraid  to  venture  our  souls 
under  his  ministry,  he  having  given  so  gi'eat  a  scandal  to  the  Gospel  of  our  Lord 
Jesus  Christ  by  such  a  grievous  oath,  acknowledged  by  himself  to  be  ambiguous, 
rash,  and  sinful,  and  what  more  may  be  made  evident.  Therefore,  we,  your 
humble  petitioners,  humbly  crave  that  we  may  not  be  held  in  bondage,  but  may 
use  our  hberty  in  procuring  a  minister  who  may  be  faithful  in  the  administrations 
of  the  Gospel,  and  inoffensive  in  his  conversation  ;  otherwise,  we,  your  humble  pe- 
titioners, shall  be  forced  to  undergo  whatever  inconvenience  or  damage  may  come 
upon  us  or  ours,  for  we  think  him  altogether  unfit  for  our  comfort.  And  we, 
your  humble  petitioners,  humbly  crave  your  help,  for  we  profess  it  lies  as  a  heavy 
burden  upon  our  consciences,  and  we  know  no  rule  that  he  should  compel  us  to 
it.  And  if  your  humble  petitioners  find  acceptance  and  relief,  you  will  more 
engage  us  to  all  loyal  subjection  to  you,  bo  humbly  we  take  our  leave  of  you,  and 
rest  yours  to  be  commanded. 


fMembers  of  the  church.] 

[Not  members  of  the  church.] 

[Not  members  of  the  church.] 

John  Hollister. 

Thomas  Curtis. 

John  Deming,  Jr. 

Thomas  Wright,  Sr. 

John  Chester. 

Thomas  Gilbert. 

John  Deming,  Sr. 

Samuel  Boardman. 

Thomas  Williams. 

John  Edwards,  Sr. 

Thomas  Standish. 

John  Sadler, 

Richard  Smith,  Sr. 

John  Kilbourn. 

John  Belden. 

Richard  Treat. 

Emanuel  Buck. 

Alice  Treat. 

John  Nott. 

Hugh  Wells. 

Joana  Hollister. 

Thomas  Lord. 

John  Harrison. 

Mary  Robbins. 

Thomas  Wright,  Jr. 

Benjamin  Crane. 

Margaret  Wright. 

John  Riley. 

Mathias  Treat 

Rebeccah  Smith. 

Richard  Smith,  Jr. 

William  Colefoxe. 

Dorothy  Edwards. 

James  Wright. 

Philip  Goffe. 

[1658.; 


THE   WETHERSFIELD   CONTROVERSY. 


463 


himself  to  be  ambiguous,  rash,  and  sinful,"  who  had  himself 
cut  asunder  the  ties  that  had  bound  him  to  the  church,  and 
who  still  remained  "  a  heavy  burden  upon  their  consciences." 


[Members  of  the  church.] 


[Not  members  of  the  church.J 


James  Wakeley. 
Joseph  Smith. 
Michael  Griswold. 
George  Wolcott. 
Thomas  Wickham. 
Nathaniel  Graves. 
John  Wadhams. 


[Not  members  of  the  church.] 

James  Treat. 
Samuel  Wright. 
Jonathan  Smith. 
John  Curtis. 
James  Boswell. 
Henry  Crane. 
Lewis  Jones. 

]V[r.  Hollister  was  a  native  of  Bristol,  England,  and  emigrated  to  New  Eng- 
land about  the  year  1642.  In  1643,  he  was  admitted  a  freeman  at  Weymouth, 
IMassachusetts,  and  was  a  representative  in  the  General  Court  of  Massachusetts,  at 
the  session  immediately  following.  In  June,  1644,  he  was  a  member  of  the  jury 
of  a  particular  court  held  at  Hartford,  he  having  a  short  time  previous  to  that  date, 
become  a  resident  of  Wethersfield.  He  attended  as  a  deputy  to  the  General  Court 
of  Connecticut  for  the  first  time,  at  the  September  session  of  the  last  named  year, 
a  post  to  which  he  was  subsequently  re-elected  fourteen  times.  In  October,  1654, 
Mr.  Hollister  was  appointed  by  the  legislature  a  member  of  a  committee  "  to  press 
men  and  necessaries  in  each  towoi,"  for  the  expedition  to  the  Narragansett  country 
against  Ninigret.  Three  years  after,  he  was  placed  on  the  committee  with  the 
deputy  governor  and  magistrates,  "  to  attend  any  occasions  as  to  the  state  of  the 
commonwealth  in  reference  to  the  Indians."  Divers  other  legislative  and  popu- 
lar appointments  evince  the  high  respect  with  which  he  was  regarded  both  by 
the  people  and  by  the  authorities  of  the  colony.  When  he  first  came  to  Con- 
necticut he  bore  the  prefix  of  "Mr.,"  which  was  superseded  in  1657  by  the 
military  title  of  "  Lieutenant."     He  died  in  1665. 

Mr.  JoAreDeming",  Sen.,  was  a  juror  of  the  particular  court  at  Hartford  in  March 
1643,  and  in  December,  1645,  was  a  member  of  the  General  Court  from  Weth- 
ersfield, an  office  to  which  he  was  chosen  at  twenty-five  semi-annual  elections. 
He  was  one  of  the  patentees  named  in  the  charter  of  1662.  Among  his  de- 
scendants, who  are  numerous  and  highly  respectable,  I  may  name  with  honor 
the  late  Julius  Deming,  Esq.,  of  Litchfield. 

Thomas  Wright^  Sen.,  was  descended  from  John  Wright,  Bishop  of  Bristol, 
Winchester,  and  Litchfield.  He  was  a  cousin  of  Mi".  Nathaniel  Wright  of  Lon- 
don, one  of  the  assistants  of  the  first  General  Court  of  Massachusetts,  before  the 
government  was  removed  to  Boston.  He  first  appears  in  New  England,  at 
Swarascott,  (now  Exeter,)  in  company  with  Col.  John  Wheelwright,  1629.  It 
appears  by  the  deed  given  by  the  Sagamores  to  Col.  Wheelwright  and  others, 
that  Mr.  Wright  was  one  of  his  company.  In  1640  he  was  admitted  a  freeman 
at  Exeter.  In  1643,  Sept.  4th,  his  name  next  occurs  as  one  of  the  jurors  of  a 
particular  court  at  Hartford.  For  some  years  previous  to  his  death,  he  was  a  deacon 
in  the  church.     The  descendants  of  Thomas  Wright  are  very  numerous.     He 


464  HISTORY   OF   CONNECTICUT. 

Meanwhile  that  nothing  might  be  wanting  to  the  success  of 
the  petition,  Hollister  was  again  returned  a  member  of  the 
Court,*  that  he  might  present  it  and  advocate  it  with  such 
earnestness  as  only  an  interested  party  could  be  expected 
to  do. 

At  the  session  of  the  Court  held  on  the  18th  of  August, 
1658,  Hollister  presented  the  petition  and  obtained  an  order 
that  Mr.  Russell  should  give  the  reasons  for  his  conduct 
towards  "  ye  Lieut.  Hollister."  Those  reasons  were  to  be 
delivered  to  Hollister  or  be  placed  in  the  hands  of  a  mes- 
senger of  his  who  should  call  for  them  at  the  elder's  house. 
In  case  this  order  should  not  be  complied  with,  Messrs.  Sam- 
uel Wells  and  Samuel  Boardman  were  ordered  "  seasonably 

was  the  ancestor  of  the  Wrights  of  Hartford  and  Litchfield,  and  of  most  of  the 
name  in  the  Western  and  Middle  States.  There  are  now  living,  of  his  descendants, 
two  senators,  three  members  of  Congress,  three  governors,  and  two  judges  of 
the  supreme  court. 

John  Edwards^  Sen.,  was  often  a  juror  of  particular  courts,  and  was  a  deputy 
in  1643. 

Captain  John  Chester  was  frequently  a  deputy  and  commissioner,  and  was  one 
of  the  most  eminent  citizens  of  Wethersfield. 

Samuel  Boardman  was  a  leading  man  in  the  colony  for  nearly  thirty  years  ; 
he  was  "  custom-master,"  colonial  grand  juror,  and  member  of  the  General 
Court. 

Sergt.  John  Kilbourn  emigrated  from  Cambridgeshire,  England,  with  his 
parents  in  1635,  at  the  age  of  ten  years.  He  was  occasionally  a  deputy  to  the 
General  Court,  was  a  colonial  grand  juror  from  1662  until  the  organization  of 
the  counties  in  1666,  and  was  appointed  to  run  the  boundary  line  between  Hart- 
ford and  Wethersfield,  and  between  Middletown  and  Wethersfield.  Pie  died  in  1 703. 

Richard  Treat  was  often  a  deputy  and  magistrate,  and  was  one  of  the  paten- 
tees of  the  colony.     He  was  the  father  of  Governor  Treat. 

Sergt.  John  Noit  was  a  juror  of  the  particular  Court  at  Hartford  as  early  as 
1 640,  and  was  subsequently  a  member  of  the  General  Court  at  twenty  semi- 
annual sessions. 

John  Riley  was  on  the  jury  of  the  particular  court  in  May  1649  ;  was  on 
the  list  of  freemen  in  Wethersfield  in  1669,  and  in  1675  was  "postman" 
between  Hartford  and  Saybrook. 

James  Treat  (a  son  of  Richard,)  was  a  deputy  from  Wethersfield  in  May, 
1672,  and  at  several  subsequent  sessions. 

Henry  Crane  was  a  deputy  from  Killingworth  in  May  1675,  and  at  other 
times. 

*  J.  II.  Trumbull's  Colonial  Records,  i.  323. 


[1559.]  THE  WETHERSFIELD  CONTROVEESY.  465 

to  repair  unto  Mr.  Russell  in  behalf  of  Lieutenant  Hollister, 
and  in  the  name  of  the  court,  desire  and  if  need  be  require 
of  him  and  the  church  of  Wethersfield  the  particular  charges 
or  offences  for  which  Mr.  Hollister  was  censured,  and  hav- 
ing received  the  said  charges  from  Mr.  Russell  and  the 
church,  forthwith  to  deliver  them  to  Mr.  Hollister  for  his 
help  and  conviction,"*  and  inasmuch  as  "Mr.  Treat,  Mr. 
Hollister,  and  John  Deming,  were  desirous  and  willing  to 
attend  some  regular  way  for  the  composing  their  differences," 
the  Court  desired  the  church  at  Wethersfield  to  devise 
some  way  of  reconciliation  between  the  parties,  if  that  were 
possible,  t 

When  the  court  met  in  October  1659,  it  was  found  that 
the  same  "  tedious  differences  and  troubles  still  existed 
between  Mr.  Russell  and  the  lieutenant,"  and  that  some  more 
decisive  measures  must  be  taken. 

The  court  therefore  desired  the  churches  of  Hartford  and 
Windsor  "  to  send  two  or  three  messengers  apiece  to  meet  in 
Wethersfield,  on  the  1st  Tuesday  in  November  1659,  to  give 
such  advice  in  the  premises  as  God  shall  direct  them  unto  by 
the  light  of  scripture  and  reason."  Even  this  expedient 
failed.  J 

The  quarrel  ended  with  the  removal  of  Mr.  Russell  to 
Hadley,  with  his  adherents,  where  he  spent  the  remainder  of 
his  days.§  At  this  remote  day  it  is  impossible  to  say  who 
was  most  in  fault  in  this  unhappy  controversy.  The  more 
charitable  conclusion  is  the  one  that  has  been  arrived  at  by 
all  the  authors  who  have  written  upon  it,  that  the  conduct  of 
neither  party  could  be  justified,  and  that  each  was  too  rash 
and  unforgiving  in  his  behavior.*I[  This  was  certainly  the 
opinion  of  the  General  Court  at  the  time. 

*  J.  H.  Ti'umbull's  Colonial  Records,  i.  330,  331.  t  Ibid. 

t  J.  H.  Trumbull's  Colonial  Records,  i.  342. 

§  Mr.  Russell  was  a  graduate  of  Harvard  College,  and  was  highly  esteemed  by 
his  cotemporaries  for  his  learning  and  piety.  It  was  at  his  house  that  Whalley 
and  GofFe,  two  of  the  Judges  of  Chai'les  I.,  were  concealed  for  several  years,  and 
there,  it  is  supposed,  at  least  one  of  them  died.     Mr.  Russell  died  Nov.  10, 1692. 

^  Vide  Trumbull,  Chapin,  Cotton,  Mather,  and  others. 

30 


466  HISTORY  OF  CONNECTICUT. 

In  1659,  a  violent  feeling  began  to  manifest  itself  in  the 
church  at  Middletown  against  their  pastor,  the  Rev.  Mr. 
Stow,  which  resulted  in  his  dismissal. 

In  October  1666,  the  General  Court,  in  order  "to  consider 
some  way  or  means  to  bring  these  ecclesiastical  matters,  that 
are  in  difference  in  the  several  plantations,  to  an  issue," 
ordered  that  a  synod  should  be  called,  to  which  all  the  pastors 
in  the  colony,  and  certain  clergymen  in  Massachusetts, 
should  be  invited.*  The  ministers,  however,  objected  to 
meet  as  a  synod,  and  in  consequence,  the  legislature  at  a 
subsequent  session  judged  it  expedient  to  alter  the  name  of 
the  council,  and  to  call  it  an  assembly  of  the  ministers  of 
Connecticut.  The  assembly  met  early  in  the  summer  of 
1667,  and,  after  conversing  upon  the  subjects  and  appoint- 
ing committees,  adjourned  to  meet  again  in  the  fall  and  make 
their  report. 

In  the  meantime,  it  was  ascertained  that  a  decision  was 
not  likely  to  be  obtained  in  unison  with  the  wishes  of  a 
majority  of  the  legislature,  and  an  effort  was  commenced  to 
prevent  the  re-assembling  of  the  ecclesiastical  council.  This 
was  accomplished  by  procuring  an  order  from  the  commis- 
sioners of  the  united  colonies,  that  "  all  questions  of  public 
concernment  about  matters  of  faith  and  order,  should  be 
referred  to  a  synod  or  council  of  messengers  of  churches, 
indifferently  called  out  of  the  united  colonies,  by  an  order  of 
agreement  of  all  the  General  Courts ;  and  that  the  place  of 
meeting  should  be  at  or  near  Boston. "f 

The  general  convention  was  never  called,  and  no  further 
attempt  was  made  to  bring  the  questions  in  dispute  into  a 
public  discussion.  The  great  point  at  issue  between  the  two 
parties  appears  to  have  been,  the  conditions  of  church  mem- 
bership. 

The  people  of  Windsor  had  for  a  long  time  been  in  an 

unquiet   state  respecting  the  settlement  of  a  colleague  to 

assist  Mr.  Wareham  in  the  work  of  the  ministry,  he  having 

become  advanced  in  years.     Mr.  Chauncey,  who  was  invited 

*  J.  H.  Trumbull,  ii.  53,  54.  +  Trumbull,  i.  357,  358. 


DIFFICULTIES  IN  WINDSOR.  467 

to  preach  there,  met  with  bitter  opposition.  The  General 
Court  finally  interfered,  with  the  hopes  of  bringing  matters 
to  a  crisis.  It  enacted  that  "  all  the  freemen  and  household- 
ers in  Windsor  and  Massacoe,"  should  assemble  at  the  meet- 
ing house  at  a  given  day  and  hour,  and  express  their  minds 
by  ballot  for  or  against  Mr.  Chauncey.  The  result  was, 
eighty-six  for,  and  fifty-five  against,  Mr.  Chauncey.  The 
legislature  then  decided  that  the  majority  might  settle  their 
favorite,  and  that  the  minority  had  liberty  to  call  and  settle 
an  orthodox  minister  among  themselves,  if  they  thought 
expedient.* 

The  minor  party  thereupon  immediately  called  Mr.  Wood- 
bridge  to  preach  among  them.  Both  of  these  ministers  con- 
tinued to  preach  in  Windsor,  one  to  the  one  party  and  the 
other  to  the  other,  from  1667  to  1680.  Several  councils  were 
called  to  consider  the  matter.  One  in  1677,  and  another  in 
1680,  advised  that  Messrs.  Chauncey  and  Woodbridge  should 
both  leave  the  town,  and  that  the  two  parties  should  unite  in 
calling  one  minister — but  without  effect. 

In  October  of  the  last  mentioned  year,  the  legislature  con- 
firmed the  advice  of  the  council,  and  called  upon  all  the  good 
people  of  Windsor  to  assist  therein,  "  and  not  in  the  least  to 
oppose  or  hinder  the  same,  as  they  will  answer  the  contrary 
to  their  periV'f 

The  Rev.  Samuel  Mather  was  soon  after  called  to  preach 
in  Windsor,  and  in  1682,  he  was  ordained  to  the  pastoral 
office  over  the  whole  town.  He  gave  good  satisfaction  to  all, 
and  the  aflfairs  of  the  society  flourished  under  his  ministry 
until  his  death  in  1726. 

The  fruitful  topics  of  controversy,  which  had  disturbed 
the  harmony  of  so  many  churches  in  the  colony,  again  began 
to  agitate  the  church  in  Hartford.  Stone  and  Goodwin 
were  no  more  ;  but  a  like  difference  of  opinion  seems  to 
have  characterized  their  successors.  Mr.  Whiting  and  a 
part  of  the  church  zealously  adhered  to  the  opinions  and  prac- 
tices of  the  congregational  churches  since  the  emigration  to 
*  Trumbull,  i.  460.  t  Col.  Records,  MS. 


468  HISTOKY  OF  CONNECTICUT. 

New  England.  On  the  other  hand,  Mr.  Haynes  and  a 
majority  of  the  congregation  claimed  to  have  adopted  more 
libera]  views.  The  difference  became  so  great,  that  a  divis- 
ion of  the  church  was  effected  in  1669.*  Contentions 
also  occmTed  in  the  church  in  Stratford  about  the  same 
time,  which  resulted  in  a  division,  and  in  the  removal  of 
one  of  the  contending  parties  to  Pomperaug  (now  Wood- 
bury.)t 

Previous  to  1708,  the  Cambridge  Platform  had  been  the  gen- 
eral plan  of  church  fellowship  and  discipline  in  New  Eng- 
land. Divers  opinions  had  long  existed  as  to  the  policy  and 
efficacy  of  some  of  its  provisions  and  omissions.  In  obedi- 
ence to  repeated  requests  and  memorials,  the  legislature,  at 
their  May  session,  1708,  passed  an  act  requiring  the  minis- 
ters and  churches  of  Connecticut  to  meet  and  form  an 
ecclesiastical  constitution.  J  They  accordingly  assembled  at 
Say  brook,  on  the  9th  day  of  September  1708,  and  after  due 
deliberation  adopted  the  celebrated  "  Saybrook  Platform," 
together  with  a  confession  of  faith.  A  uniform  standard  of 
faith  and  action  being  thus  agreed  upon,  a  period  of  harmony 
and  good  feeling  followed,  such  as  had  not  been  before  ex- 
perienced for  many  years. 

The  first  serious  ecclesiastical  disturbance  after  the  union 
thus  effected,  occurred  in  Guilford  in  1728.  Mr.  Thomas 
Ruggles,  the  minister  of  that  place,  had  died,  and  the  church 
and  society  proceeded  to  call  his  son  of  the  same  name  to 
preach  for  them,  and  finally  procured  his  ordination  and  set- 
tlement, much  to  the  dissatisfaction  of  a  respectable  minority 
who  had  opposed  him  from  the  beginning.  The  minority, 
consisting  of  about  fifty  members  of  the  church  and  many 
others  belonging  to  the  society,  separated  ;  they  declared  their 
dissent  to  the  Saybrook  Platform,  invited  a  young  clergy- 
man, Mr.  Edmund  Ward,  to  preach  for  them,  and  petitioned 
the  legislature  to  make  them  a  distinct  ecclesiastical  society. 
The  legislature  denied  their  request ;  whereupon  they 
appealed  to  the  court  at  New  Haven  to  be  qualified,  according 

*  Trumbull,  i.  461.  +  Col.  Records,  i.  177.  i  Col.  Records,  MS. 


n  v/ici  l/ici  n    Cfji  \f\)a  r^i 


[1735.]  THE   GEEAT   EEVIVAL.  469 

to  the  act  of  William  and  Mary,  for  the  ease  of  sober  con- 
sciences, to  worship  by  themselves.  The  court  deferred  the 
matter  until  their  next  meeting,  in  April — on  which  day 
several  of  the  dissenters,  together  with  Mr.  Ward,  appeared 
in  court  and  qualified  themselves  according  to  the  act  of 
parliament  and  the  laws  of  the  colony. 

They  now  renewed  their  request  to  the  legislature  to  be 
freed  from  paying  taxes  to  the  first  society,  and  to  be  made 
a  distinct  ecclesiastical  body.  On  a  full  representation  of 
the  facts  in  the  case,  their  first  request  was  granted.  Efforts 
were  now  renewed  to  effect  a  reconciliation  between  the 
parties,  but  they  proved  unavaiUng.  The  breach  grew  wider 
and  wider,  until,  on  the  30th  of  June  1731,  the  church  under 
the  care  of  Mr.  Ruggles,  suspended  from  communion  forty- 
six  of  the  dissenting  members. 

The  contention  continued  with  unabated  violence  until 
May  1733,  when  the  friends  of  Mr.  Ward  were  finally  made 
a  distinct  ecclesiastical  society  by  the  legislature.* 

In  1735,  there  began  a  most  remarkable  religious  awaken- 
ing under  the  preaching  of  the  celebrated  Jonathan  Edwards, 
at  Northampton,  which  has  since  been  designated  as  the 
"  great  revival."!  It  spread  into  many  towns  in  Connecticut, 
and  the  feeling  and  interest  manifested  on  the  great  themes 
of  religion  were  intense  and  absorbing.  This  appears  to 
to  have  been  followed  by  a  period  of  great  religious  declen- 
sion and  formality  until  1740 ;  when  a  still  more  general  and 
extraordinary  revival  commenced,  which  spread  throughout 
New  England  and  some  of  the  more  southern  and  western 
colonies.  Childhood,  manhood,  old  age — the  learned  and  the 
ignorant — the  moralist  and  the  skeptic — men  of  wealth  and 
the  highest  official  position,  as  well  as  paupers  and  outcasts — 
were  numbered  among  its  converts.     We  are  told  that  even 

*  Trumbull,  ii.  115,  134. 

t  At  the  request  of  Dr.  Watts  and  other  English  divines,  Mr.  Edwards  wrote 
a  narrative  of  the  "  great  revival,"  which  was  published  in  London,  and  has  since 
been  frequently  republished. 


470  HISTORY  OF  CONNECTICUT, 

the  Indians,  on  whom  no  impression  could  previously  be 
made,  became  humble  inquirers  after  the  truth.* 

Among  the  most  zealous  and  efficient  laborers  in  the  work, 
were  Whitfield,  Edwards,  and  Tennant,  from  abroad ;  and 
Wheelock,  Bellamy,  Pomeroy,  Mills,  Graham,  Meacham, 
Whitman,  and  Farrand,  among  the  pastors  of  Connecticut. 
Many  of  the  clergy  of  the  colony,  however,  strenuously 
opposed  the  measures  employed  and  the  effects  produced ; 
and  many  of  the  magistrates  and  other  leading  men  joined 
with  them  in  denouncing  the  "  itinerating  clergy"  and  their 
converts  as  enthusiasts,  new  lights,  and  ranters.  Laws  were 
passed,  with  severe  penalties,  against  any  clergyman  or 
exhorter  who  should  attempt  to  preach  in  any  parish  or  town 
without  the  express  desire  of  the  pastor  or  people  thereof.f 

It  is  not  to  be  denied  that  many  gross  errors  and  irregu- 
larities followed  in  the  train  of  this  remarkable  moral  revolu- 
tion. Many  of  the  most  enthusiastic  of  its  subjects  forsook 
their  pastors  and  their  usual  places  of  worship,  and  followed 
the  "itinerants"  from  parish  to  parish  and  from  town  to  town. 
Some  of  the  preachers  and  exhorters  encouraged  the  most 
boisterous  manifestations  of  feeling  during  the  public  worship, 
on  the  part  of  the  audience,  and  sought  to  arouse  them  by 
raising  their  own  voices  to  the  highest  key,  accompanied  by 
violent  gestures  and  the  most  unnatural  agitations  of  the 
body.  Some  claimed  to  know,  by  a  divine  instinct,  who 
wei'e  christians  and  who  were  sinners ;  and  in  particular 
cases,  took  it  upon  themselves  to  declare  openly  that  their  pastors 
and  other  christian  friends  were  hypocrites  or  self-deceivers. 
They  grew  pharisaical,  uncharitable,  censorious,  bitter,  self- 
sufficient,  and  finally  claimed  that  they  had  been  regenerated 

*  Trumbull,  ii.  144. 

t  Any  person  not  an  ordained  or  settled  minister  who  should  attempt  publicly 
to  teach  or  exhort  without  the  express  desire  and  invitation  of  the  pastor  or  a 
major  part  of  the  church  and  congregation,  should  be  bound  in  the  sum  of  one 
hundred  pounds  lawful  money  not  to  offend  again. 

Any  foreigner  or  stranger  not  an  inhabitant  of  the  colony,  whether  ordained  or 
not,  who  should  so  offend,  was  ordered  "  to  be  sent  as  a  vagrant  person,  from 
constable  to  constable,  out  of  the  bounds  of  the  colony." 


OPPOSITION  TO  THE    "NEW  LIGHTS."  471 

and  could,  not  sin.  Some  of  them  took  delight  in  denouncing 
and  vihfying  the  estabUshed  rehgion  and  its  ministers,  as 
well  as  the  civil  government  and  all  in  authority  under 
it.* 

The  assembly  not  only  passed  laws  against  these  alleged 
irregularities,  but  the  several  ecclesiastical  bodies  interposed 
their  authority  to  check  the  innovations  of  the  "  new  lights." 
After  numerous  attempts  to  discipline  the  refractory  preachers, 
the  consociations  and  association,  proceeded  to  suspend  or 
expel  all  the  "  new  hght"  pastors  in  the  colony.  The  pretexts 
for  this  summary  action  were  various.  In  some  instances 
the  offenders  had  repudiated  the  Saybrook  platform,  in  others, 
they  were  charged  with  violating  the  statute  which  prohibited 
them  from  preaching  in  other  parishes  without  the  requisite 
consent ;  while  in  other  cases  they  were  suspected  of  danger- 
ous heresies. t  The  trial  of  the  Rev.  Philemon  Robbins  of 
Branford,  who  was  charged  with  all  these  offenses,  com- 
menced in  1742  was  continued  till  1747,  and  resulted  in  his 
deposition  from  the  ministry.  He,  however,  continued  to 
preach  to  his  people  as  before,  to  their  general  satisfaction ; 
they  increased  his  salary,  and  encouraged  him  by  various 
acts  of  public  and  private  liberality. 

The  difficulty  arising  out  of  the  settlement  of  Mr.  Whit- 
tlesy  at  Milford,  partook  largely  of  a  personal  character,  and 
deserves  little  notice  from  the  historian.  It  resulted  in  a 
division  of  the  church  in  that  town,  and  in  the  settlement  of 
Mr.  Prudden  by  the  minority. 

Mr.  Noyes,  pastor  of  the  first  church  in  New  Haven,  had 

*  Rev.  Jolin  Owen  of  Groton,  and  Rev.  Benjamin  Pomeroy  of  Hebron,  were 
brouglit  before  tlie  legislature  in  May  1744,  for  scandalizing  the  laws  and  officers 
of  the  government,  &e.  The  former  made  some  concessions,  and  was  dismissed 
on  his  paying  the  costs  of  prosecution  ;  the  latter  was  bound  to  keep  the  peace,  in 
a  bond  of  fifty  pounds,  and  was  made  to  pay  the  cost  of  prosecution,  amounting 
to  £32 :  10  :  8. 

t  In  1744,  the  Rev.  Messrs.  Leavenworth  of  Waterbury,  Humphreys  of  Derby, 
and  Todd  of  Northbury,  were  suspended  by  the  consociation  for  assisting  in  the 
ordination  of  the  Rev.  Jonathan  Lee,  at  Salisbury,  becaxise  he  and  his  church  had 
adopted  the  Cambridge  platform. 


472  HISTORY   OF  CONNECTICUT, 

been  one  of  the  violent  opposers  of  the  religious  excitement 
of  the  times.  He  excluded  the  "revival  preachers"  from  his 
pulpit,  and  openly  approved  of  the  laws  that  had  been  passed 
to  suppress  or  regulate  the  extravagances  and  alleged 
fanaticism  that  had  grown  out  of  that  excitement.  As  a 
consequence,  many  of  his  parishioners  became  disaffected 
towards  him ;  and,  as  they  failed  to  secure  that  redress  from 
the  consociation,  to  which  they  felt  themselves  entitled,  they 
withdrew,  organized  themselves  under  the  "toleration  act," 
and  were  formally  recognized  as  a  distinct  and  independent 
church  and  society  by  a  council  called  for  that  purpose.* 
For  several  years  the  new  church  was  without  a  pastor,  but 
in  the  meantime  enjoyed  the  ministrations  of  many  able 
preachers.  In  1751,  an  ecclesiastical  council  met  at  New 
Haven  and  installed  to  the  pastoral  office  the  Rev.  Mr.  Bird.f 
This  is  still  known  as  the  second  or  north  church  in  New 
Haven. 

The  "Wallingford  controversy"  agitated  the  churches  of 
Connecticut  from  1758  to  1763,  and  was  frequently  the  sub- 
ject of  comment  long  thereafter.  It  commenced  in  a  spirit 
of  hostility  to  the  Rev.  James  Dana,  who  was  called  to 
preach  in  that  town,  and  was  finally  settled  there  in  opposi- 
tion to  a  large  proportion  of  the  members  of  the  society.  It 
was  contended  by  his  opponents  that  he  was  not  orthodox  in 
sentiment ;  that  he  had  evaded  the  enquiries  of  the  com- 
mittee as  to  his  views  on  important  doctrinal  points,  and 
finally  replied  impertinently  ;  and,  after  his  alleged  ordina- 
tion, it  was  claimed  that  the  ordination  was  not  valid  inas- 
much as  it  was  not  done  in  accordance  with  the  provisions 
of  the  Saybrook  platform.  The  members  of  the  ordaining 
council  were  excluded  from  the  association  and  were  never 
restored.     The  individuals  who  withdrew  from  the  church  in 

*  The  council  convened  at  New  Haven  in  Sept.  1751,  and  consisted  of  the 
Rev.  Messrs.  Philemon  Robbins,  Joseph  Bellamy,  Eleazer  Wheelock,  Samuel 
Hopkins  and  Benjamin  Pomeroy,  together  with  lay  delegates  from  tlieir  respective 
churches. 

+  Trumbull 


[1644.]  EELIGIOUS  TOLERATION.  473 

Wallingford  formed  a  new  society,  which  was  incorporated 
at  the  May  session  of  the  legislature,  1763.  The  Rev. 
Simon  Waterman  had  become  their  pastor  some  time  before 
that  date.* 

The  religion  of  the  colony  was  established  by  law  at  an 
early  date.  In  October  1644,  the  General  Court  adopted  the 
proposition  of  the  united  colonies  relative  to  the  support  of 
ministers.  This  proposition,  which  was  enacted  as  the  law 
of  the  colony,  provided  that  each  individual  should  "  volun- 
tarily set  down  what  he  is  willing  to  allow  to  that  end  and 
use ;"  and  if  any  man  refuse  or  neglect  to  pay  his  proportion, 
he  should  be  rated  by  authority,  and  the  amount  collected  by 
due  course  of  law  as  in  the  case  of  other  just  debts.  This 
principle  was  borrowed  in  part  from  the  institutions  of  Eng- 
land, though  it  was  greatly  modified  and  softened  in  its  prac- 
tical application.  Here,  it  will  be  seen,  as  in  the  father- 
land, all  adults  whatever  may  have  been  their  own  religious 
views,  were  obliged  to  contribute  to  the  support  of  the 
established  church.  Instead,  however,  of  a  system  of  tithes, 
taxation  was  resorted  to.  In  addition  to  this,  the  whole 
population  was  obliged  to  attend  the  regular  meetings  on  Sun- 
days, fasts,  and  thanksgiving  days. 

At  the  same  time,  with  a  liberality  not  at  all  in  accordance 
with  the  example  set  them  in  England,  provision  was  made 
for  those  who  dissented  from  the  mode  of  worship  thus  estab- 
lished, and  "all  sober,  orthodox  persons"  who  did  not  fall  in 
with  the  usages  of  Congregationalism,  were  allowed,  after 
having  made  their  wishes  known  in  a  public  manner  to  the 
General  Court,  peaceably  to  worship  in  their  own  way.f 

The  practical  operation  of  this  system  was  much  more 
lenient  than  one  would  infer  even  from  the  statutes  them- 

*  Trumbull. 

t  In  May  1669,  after  expressing  their  full  approval  of  Congregationalism,  the 
General  Court  say — "  Tet  forasmuch  as  sundry  persons  of  worth  for  prudence 
and  piety  amongst  us  are  otherwise  persuaded,  This  court  doth  declare  that  all 
such  persons  being  also  approved  according  to  law  as  orthodox  and  sound  in  the 
fundamentals  of  the  christian  religion,  may  have  allowance  of  their  persuasion 
and  profession  in  church  ways  or  assemblies  without  disturbance." 


474 


HISTORY  OF  CONNECTICUT. 


selves.  A  sedate,  calm  people  growing  up  under  institutions 
that  every  individual  in  the  republic  had  helped  to  frame, 
and  for  which  he  consequently  felt  a  personal  responsibility, 
the  general  desire  was  that  there  should  be  a  sober  and 
equable  exercise  of  authority  throughout  the  colony. 

The  difficulties  growing  out  of  a  new  church  government, 
several  of  which  have  been  delineated  in  this  chapter,  are 
just  what  we  should  have  anticipated  as  likely  to  follow  in 
the  train  of  those  struggles  in  the  early  part  of  the  sixteenth 
century,  when  Martin  Luther  and  his  contemporaries, 
"wielding  the  hammer  of  the  Word,  wrought  upon  the  hard 
metal  of  human  unbelief,  till  the  world  rang,"*  and  extended 
down  to  the  time  when  the  blood,  that  was  at  once  the  most 
vital  and  the  most  conservative  that  then  flowed  in  Eng- 
lish veins,  rebelled  against  the  arbitrary  exactions  of  the  old 
world  and  warmed  with  the  promises  of  the  new. 

Thus  I  have  attempted,  in  a  very  humble  way,  to  describe 
the  beginnings  of  our  venerable  republic.  The  reader  has 
seen  the  seeds  sown  by  the  whirlwind  taking  root  in  the 
desert  and  growing  up  and  blossoming  with  hope  while 
"winter  lingered  in  the  lap  of  May."  Hoping  that  some- 
thing of  the  fragrance  of  their  young  growth  has  been  dis- 
tilled upon  the  last  page  of  this  volume,  I  close  it,  only  to  open 
another  that  shall  describe  the  glorious  fruit  that  those  seeds 
have  borne. 

*  Hoppin's  "  Notes  of  a  Theological  Student. 


LADY   FKNWICK  S  TOMB. 


APPENDIX. 
A. 

PATENT   OF  COXNECTICUT-1631. 

To  all  people  vnto  whome  this  present  writeing  shall  come,  Robert,  earle  of 
Warwick,  sendeth  greeting,  in  our  Lord  God  everlasting  :  Know  yee,  that  the 
sayd  Robert,  earl  of  Warwick,  for  divers  Good  causes  &  considerations  him 
therevnto  moueing,  hath  giuen,  Granted,  Bargained,  sold,  enfeoffed.  Aliened  Ss 
confirmed,  &  by  these  presents  doth  giue,  grant,  Bargain,  sell,  enfeoffe.  Alien  & 
confirme  vnto  the  Right  Honourable  William,  Viscount  Say  &  Scale,  The  Right 
Honourable  Rob't,  Lord  Brooke,  The  right  honourable  Lord  Rich,  &  the  Honour- 
able Charles  fines,  Esq'r,  Sr.  Nathaniel  Rich,  Knight,  Sr.  Richard  Saltonstall, 
Knight,  Richard  linightly,  Esq'r,  John  Pim,  Esq'r,  John  Hamden,  Esq'r,  John 
Humphrey,  Esq'r  &  Herbert  Pelham,  Esq'r,  theire  heires  &  assignes  &  their 
associates  foreuer,  all  that  part  of  New  England  in  Americah,  which  lyes  &  extends 
it  selfe  from  a  Riuer  there  called  Narrogancett  Riuer,  the  space  of  forty  leagues 
vpon  a  straight  lyne  neere  the  sea  shore  towards  the  Sowth  west,  west  and  by  sowth 
or  west,  as  the  coast  lyeth,  towards  Virginia,  accounting  Three  English  Miles  to 
the  league ;  &  allso  all  &  singuler  the  lands  &  hereditaments  what  soeuer,  lye- 
ing  &  being  with  in  the  lands  afoarsayd.  North  &  South  in  Lattitude  &  bredth, 
&  in  Length  &  Longitude  of  &  with  in  all  the  bredth  afoarsayd,  through  out 
the  Maine  lands  there,  from  the  westerne  oscian  to  the  sowth  sea  ;  &  all  lands 
&  grounds,  place  &  places,  soyle,  wood  &  woods,  Grounds,  hauens,  portes, 
creeks  &  Rivers,  waters,  fishings  &  hereditaments  what  soever,  lying  with  in  the 
sayd  space  &  every  part  &  parcell  thereof;  &  allso  all  Islands  lying  in  Americah 
afoarsayd,  in  the  sayd  seas  or  either  of  them,  on  the  western  or  eastern  coasts  or 
parts  of  the  sayd  Ti'acts  of  lands  by  these  pr'sents  mentioned  to  be  giuen,  granted. 
Bargained,  sold,  enfeoffed,  aliened  &  confirmed;  &  allso  all  Mines,  Minei'alls, — 
(as  well  Royall  mines  of  Gold  &  Siluer  as  other  mines  &  mineralls)  what  euer  in 
the  sayd  lands  &  premises,  or  any  part  thereof;  &  allso  the  several  Riuers  with 
in  the  sayd  limits,  by  what  Name  or  Names  soever  called  or  known  ;  &  all  Juris- 
dictions, rights  &  Royalties,  liberties,  freedomes.  Immunities,  powers,  priuiledges, 
franchizes,  preheminencies  &  comodities  what  soever,  which  the  said  Rob't 
earle  of  Worwiek,  now  hath  or  had,  or  might  vse,  exercise  or  injoy,  in  or  within 
[the  said  lands  and  premises  or  within*]  any  part  or  parcell  thereof,  excepting  & 
reseruing  to  his  Ma'tia,  his  heirs  &  successors,  the  fift  part  of  all  Gold  &  Silver 
care  that  shall  be  found  with  in  the  sayd  premises  or  any  part  or  parcell  thereof : 
to  haue  &  to  hold  the  sayd  part  of  New  England  in  Americah  which  lyes  & 

*  The  portion  in  brackets  is  found  only  in  an  early  copy  made  by  Mr.  John  Talcott,  "  of  that 
Coppy  which  was  in  Mr.  Hopkins  his  Custody."     [Towns  and  Lands,  Vol.  1.  No.  5.] 


476  APPEITDIX. 

extends  &  is  abutted  as  afoarsayd,  and  the  sayd  severall  Riuers,  &  euery  part  <fc 

parcell  thereof,  &  all  the  sayd  Islands,  Riuers,  portes,  Hauens,  waters,  fishings, 

Mines,  Mineralls,  lurisdictions,  powers,  franchizes,  Royalties,  liberties,  priuiledges, 

commodities,  hereditaments  &  premises  whatsoeuer,  with  the  appurtenances,  vnto 

the  sayd  William,  Viscount  Say  &  Seale,  Robert,  Lord  Brooke,  Robert,  Lord 

Rich,  Charles  fines,  Sr.  Nathaniel  Rich,  Sr.  Richard  Saltonstall,  Richard  Knightly, 

John  Pirn,  John  Hamden,  John  Humphery  &  Herbert  Pellam,  theire  heirs  & 

assignes  &  their  associates,  to  the  onely  proper  &  absolute  vse  &  behoofe  of 

them  the  sayd  Wilbam,  Viscount  Say  &  Seale,  Robert,  Lord  Brook,  Robert,  Lord 

Rich,  Charles  fines,  Sr.  Nathaniel  Rich,  Sr.  Richard  Saltonstall,  Richard  Knightly, 

John  Pim,  John  Hamden,  John  Humphrey  and  Herbert  Pelham,  their  heirs  and 

assignes  and  their  associates  for  evermore.     In  Witliess   whereof,  the  sayd 

Robert  Earle  of  Warwick  hath  herevnto  set  his  hand  &  seale,  the  Nineteenth 

day  of  March,  in  the  Seventh  yeare  of  the  Reigne  of  our  Soueraigne  Lord  Charles, 

by  the  Grace  of  God,  King  of  England,  Scotland,  fi-ance  and  Jreland,  Defender 

of  the  fayth,  &e.     Anno  Dom.  1631. 

ROBERT  WARWICK.     [L.  S.] 

Signed,  Sealed  &  deliuered  in  the  presence  of 
Walter  Williams, 
Thomas  Howson, 
Hartford,  August  6,  1679. 

Vera  Copia,  JOHN  ALLEN,  Secr'y* 


B. 

CHARTER  OF   1662. 


Charles  the  Second,  Sy  the  Crrace  of  God,  King  of  Eng- 
land, Scotland,  France  and  Ireland,  defender  of  the  Faith,  &c. ;  To  all  to  whome 
theis  presents  shall  come,  Greetinge  :  "Whereas,  by  the  severall  Navigatons, 
discoveryes  and  successfull  Plantatons  of  diverse  of  our  loveing  Subjects  of  this  our 
Realme  of  England,  Severall  Lands,  Islands,  Places,  Colonies  and  Plantatons  have 
byn  obtained  and  setled  in  that  parte  of  the  Continent  of  America  called  New 
England,  and  thereby  the  Trade  and  Comerce  there  hath  byn  of  late  yeare* 
much  increased.  And  whereas,  wee  have  byn  informed  by  the  himible 
Petiton  of  our  Trusty  and  welbeloved  John  Winthrop,  John  Mason,  Samuell 
Willis,  Henry  Gierke,  Mathew  Allen,  John  Tappen,  Nathan  Gold,  Richard 
Treate,  Richard  Lord,  Henry  Woolicott,  John  Talcott,  Daniell  Gierke,  John 
Ogden,  Thomas  Wells,  Obedias  Brewen,  John  Gierke,  Anthony  Haukins,  Jolin 
Doming  and  Mathew  Camfeild,  being  Persons  Principally  interessed  in  our 
Colony  or  Plantaton  of  Goneeticutt  in  New  England,  that  the  same  Colony  or  the 
greatest  parte  thereof  was  purchased  and  obteyncd  for  greate  and  valuable  Con- 

*  Towns  and  Lands,  Vol.  1.  No.  2.    The  original  Patent  is  supposed  to  be  lost. 


APPENDIX.  477 

sideratons,  And  some  other  part  thereof  gained  by  Conquest  and  with  much 
difficulty,  and  att  the  onely  endeavours,  expenee  and  Charge  of  them  and  their 
Associats,  and  those  vnder  whome  they  Clayme,  Subdued  and  improved,  and 
thereby  become  a  considerable  enlargement  and  additon  of  our  Dominions  and 
interest  there, — l^o^V  M.110W  yea,  that  in  Consideraton  thereof,  and  in 
regard  the  said  Colony  is  remote  from  other  the  English  Plantatons  in  the  Places 
aforesaid.  And  to  the  end  the  Affaires  and  Business  which  shall  from  tyme  to 
tyme  happen  or  arise  concerning  the  same  may  bee  duely  Ordered  and  mannaged. 
Wee  have  thought  fitt,  and  att  the  humble  Petiton  of  the  Persons  aforesaid, 
and  are  graciously  pleased  to  Create  and  Make  them  a  Body  Pollitique  and  Corpo- 
rate, with  the  powers  and  Prlviledges  herein  after  mentoned ;  And  accordingly  Our 
will  and  pleasure  is,  and  of  our  especiall  grace,  certeine  knowledge  and  meere 
moton,  wee  liave  Ordeyned,  Constituted  and  Declared,  And  by  theis  presents 
for  vs,  our  heires  and  Successors,  l>oe  Ordeine,  Constitute  and  Declare  That 
they,  the  said  John  Winthrop,  John  Mason,  Samuell  Willis,  Henry  Clerke, 
Mathew  Allen,  John  Tappen,  Nathan  Gold,  Richard  Treate,  Richard  Lord, 
Henry  Woolcot,  John  Talcot,  Daniell  Clerke,  John  Ogden,  Thomas  Wells, 
Obadiah  Brewen,  John  Clerke,  Anthony  Hawkins,  John  Deming  and  Mathew 
Camfeild,  and  all  such  others  as  now  are  hereafter  shall  bee  Admitted  and  made 
free  of  the  Company  and  Society  of  our  Collony  of  Conecticut  in  America,  shall 
from  tyme  to  tyme  and  for  ever  hereafter,  bee  one  Body  Corporate  and  Pollitique 
in  fact  and  name,  by  the  Name  of  Governour  and  Company  of  the  English 
Collony  of  Conecticut  in  New  England  in  America  ;  And  that  by  the  same  name 
they  and  their  Successors  shall  and  may  have  perpetuall  Succession,  and  shall  and 
may  bee  Persons  able  and  capable  in  the  law  to  Plead  and  bee  Impleaded,  to 
Answere  and  bee  Answered  vnto,  to  Defend  and  bee  Defended  in  all  and  singTiler 
Suits,  Causes,  quarrelles.  Matters,  Actons  and  things  of  what  kind  or  nature 
soever,  And  alsoe  to  have,  take,  possesse,  acquire  and  purchase  lands,  Tene- 
ments or  herditaments,  or  any  goods  or  Chattells,  and  the  same  to  Lease,  Graunt, 
Demise,  Alien,  bargaine.  Sell  and  dispose  of,  as  other  our  leige  People  of  this  our 
Realme  of  England,  or  any  other  Corporaton  or  Body  Pollitique  within 
the  same  may  lawfully  doe.  Asid  fiwrtlier,  that  the  said  Gov- 
ernour and  Company,  and  their  Successors  shall  and  may  for  ever  here- 
after have  a  Common  Scale  to  serve  and  vse  for  all  Causes,  matters, 
things  and  affaires  whatsoever  of  them  and  their  Successors,  and  the  same 
Scale  to  alter,  change,  breake  and  make  new  from  tyme  to  tyme  att  their 
wills  and  pleasures,  as  they  shall  thinke  fitt.  Alld[  further,  wee  will  and 
Ordeine,  and  by  theis  presents  for  vs,  our  heires  and  Successors  Doe  Declare 
and  appoint,  that  for  the  better  ordering  and  manageing  of  the  affaires  and  busi- 
nesse  of  the  said  Company  and  their  Successors,  there  shall  bee  one  Governour, 
one  Deputy  Governour  and  Twelve  Assistants,  to  bee  from  tyme  to  tyme  Consti- 
tuted, Elected  and  Chosen  out  of  the  Freemen  of  the  said  Company  for  the  tyme 
being,  in  such  manner  and  forme  as  hereafter  in  these  presents  is  expressed ; 
which  said  Officers  shall  apply  themselves  to  take  care  for  the  best  disposeing  and 
Ordering  of  the  Generall  busines  and  affaires  of  and  concering  the  lands  and 
hereditaments  herein  after  mentoned  to  bee  graunted,  and  the  Plantaton  thereof 


478  APPENDIX. 

and  the  Government  of  the  People  thereof.  And  for  the  better  executon  of  our 
Royall  Pleasure  herein,  "wee  doe  for  vs,  our  heires  and  Successors,  Asslgne, 
name.  Constitute  and  appoint  the  aforesaid  John  Winthrop  to  bee  "■'  first  and 
present  Governour  of  the  said  Company ;  And  the  said  John  Mason  to  bee  "■" 
Deputy  Governour  ;  And  the  said  Samuell  Willis,  Mathew  Allen,  Nathan  Gold, 
Henry  Gierke,  Richard  Treat,  John  Ogden,  Thomas  Tappen,  John  Talcott, 
Thomas  Wells,  Henry  Woolcot,  Richard  Lord  and  Daniell  Gierke  to  bee  the 
Twelve  present  Assistants  of  the  said  Company ;  to  contynue  in  the  said  sever- 
all  offices  respectively,  vntill  the  second  Thursday  which  shall  bee  in  the  Moneth 
of  October  now  next  eomeing.  And  further,  wee  will,  and  by  theis  presents  for 
vs,  our  heires  and  Successors,  Doe  Ordaine  and  Graunt  that  the  Governour  of 
the  said  Company  for  the  tyme  being,  or,  in  his  absence  by  occasion  of  sickness, 
or  otherwise  by  his  leave  or  permission,  the  Deputy  Governour  for  the  tyme 
being,  shall  and  may  from  tyme  to  tyme  vpon  all  occasions  give  Order  for  the 
assembhng  of  the  said  Company  and  calling  them  together  to  Consult  and  advise 
of  the  businesse  and  Affaires  of  the  said  Company,  And  that  for  ever  hereafter, 
Twice  in  every  yeare.  That  is  to  say  on  every  second  Thursday  in  October  and  on 
every  second  Thursday  in  May,  or  oftner,  in  Case  it  shall  bee  requisite.  The  Assist- 
ants and  freemen  of  the  said  Company,  or  such  of  them  (not  exceeding  twoe 
Persons  from  each  place,  Towoie  or  Citty)  whoe  shall  be  from  tyme  to  tyme 
therevnto  Elected  or  Deputed  by  the  maior  parte  of  the  freemen  of  the  respect- 
ive Townes,  Cittyes  and  Places  for  which  they  shall  bee  soe  elected  or  Deputed, 
shall  have  a  generall  meeting  or  Assembly,  then  and  their  to  Consult  and  advise 
in  and  about  the  Affaires  and  businesse  of  the  said  Company  ;  And  that  the  Gov- 
ernour, or  in  his  absence  the  Deputy  Governour  of  the  said  Company  for  the 
tyme  being,  and  such  of  the  Assistants  and  freemen  of  the  said  Company  as  shall 
bee  soe  Elected  or  Deputed  and  bee  present  att  such  meeting  or  Assembly,  or 
the  greatest  Number  of  them,  whereof  the  Governour  or  Deputy  Governour  and 
Six  of  the  Assistants  at  least  (to  bee  Seaven)  shall  be  called  the  Generall  Assem- 
bly, and  shall  have  full  power  and  authority  to  alter  and  change  their  dayes  and 
tymes  of  meeting  or  Generall  Assemblies  for  Electing  the  Governour,  Deputy 
Governour  and  Assistants  or  other  Officers,  or  any  other  Courts,  Assemblies  or 
meetings,  and  to  Choose,  Nominate  and  appoint  such  and  soe  many  other  Per- 
sons as  they  shall  thinke  fitt  and  shall  bee  willing  to  accept  the  same,  to  bee  free  of 
the  said  Company  and  Body  Politique,  and  them  into  the  same,  to  Admitt  and  to 
Elect,  and  Constitute  such  Officers  as  they  shall  thinke  fitt  and  requisite  for  the  Or- 
dering, manageing  and  disposeing  of  the  Affaires  of  the  said  Governour  and  Company 
and  their  Successors.  And  wee  doe  hereby  for  vs,  our  heirs  and  Successors, 
Establish  and  Ordeine,  that  once  in  the  yeare  for  ever  hereafter,  namely,  the  said 
Second  Thursday  in  May,  the  Governour,  Deputy  Governour,  and  Assistants  of  the 
said  Company  and  other  Officers  of  the  said  Company,  or  such  of  them  as  the  said 
Generall  Assembly  shall  thinke'fitt,  shall  bee  in  the  said  Generall  Court  and  Assem- 
bly to  bee  held  from  that  day  or  tyme  newly  Chosen  for  the  yeare  ensueing,  by 
such  greater  part  of  the  said  Company  for  the  tyme  being  then  and  there  pre- 
sent. And  if  the  Governour,  Deputy  Governour  and  Assistants  by  these  pre- 
sents appointed,  or  such  as  hereafter  bee  newly  Chosen  into  their  Roomes,  or  any 


APPENDIX.  479 

of  them,  or  any  other  the  Officers  to  bee  appointed  for  the  said  Company  shall 
dye  or  bee  removed  from  his  or  their  severall  Offices  or  Places  before  the  said 
Generall  day  of  Electon,  whome  wee  doe  hereby  Declare  for  any  misdemeanour 
or  default  to  bee  removeable  by  the  Governour,  Assistants  and  Company,  or  such 
greater  part  of  them  in  any  of  the  said  publique  Courts  to  bee  Assembled  as  is 
aforesaid,  That  then  and  in  every  such  Case  itt  shall  and  may  bee  lawful!  to  and 
for  the  Governour,  Deputy  Governour  and  Assistants  and  Company  aforesaid, 
or  such  greater  parte  of  them  soe  to  bee  Assembled  as  is  aforesaid  in  any  of  their 
Assemblies  to  proeeede  to  a  New  Electon  of  one  or  more  of  their  Company  in  the 
Roome  or  place,  Roomes  or  Places  of  such  Governour,  Deputy  Governour,  As- 
sistant or  other  Officer  or  Officers  soe  dyeing  or  removed,  according  to  their  dis- 
cretions ;  and  imediately  vpon  and  after  such  Electon  or  Electons  made  of  such 
Governour,  Deputy  Governour,  Assistant  or  Assistants,  or  any  other  Officer  of 
the  said  Company  in  manner  and  forme  aforesaid.  The  Authority,  Office  and 
Power  before  given  to  the  former  Governour,  Deputy  Governour  or  other 
Officer  and  Officers  so  removed,  in  whose  stead  and  Place  new  shall  be  chosen, 
shall  as  to  him  and  them  and  every  of  them  respectively  cease  and  determine. 
Provided,  alsoe,  and  our  will  and  pleasure  is.  That  as  well  such  as  are  by 
theis  presents  appointed  to  bee  the  present  Governour,  Deputy  Governour  and 
Assistants  of  the  said  Company  as  those  that  '^^'^  succeed  them,  and  all  other  Offi- 
cers to  be  appointed  and  Chosen  as  aforesaid,  shall,  before  they  vndertake  the  Execu- 
ton  of  their  said  Offices  and  Places  respectively,  take  their  severall  and  respective 
Corporall  Oathes  for  the  due  and  faithfuU  performance  of  their  dutyes  in  their  several 
Offices  and  Places,  before  such  Person  or  Persons  as  are  by  these  Presents  hereafter 
appoynted  to  take  and  receive  the  same ;  That  is  to  say,  the  said  John  Winthrop, 
whoe  is  herein  before  nominated  and  appointed  the  present  Governour  of  the 
said  Company,  shall  take  the  said  Oath  before  one  or  more  of  the  Masters  of 
our  Court  of  Chancery  for  the  tyme  being,  vnto  which  Master  of  Chancery  wee 
doe,  by  theis  presents,  give  full  power  and  authority  to  Administer  the  said 
Oath  to  the  said  John  Winthrop  accordingly.  And  the  said  John  Mason,  whoe 
is  herein  before  nominated  and  appointed  the  present  Deputy  Governour  of  the 
Company,  shall  take  the  said  Oath  before  the  said  John  Winthrop,  or  any  twoe 
of  the  Assistants  of  the  said  Company,  vnto  whome  "wee  doe  by  these  pre- 
sents, give  full  power  and  authority  to  Administer  the  gaid  Oath  to  the  said  John 
Mason  accordingly.  Afild  the  said  SamueU.  Willis,  Henry  Gierke,  Mathew 
Allen,  John  Tappen,  Nathan  Gold,  Richard  Treate,  Richard  Lord,  Henry  Wool- 
cott,  John  Talcott,  Daniell  Gierke,  John  Ogden  and  Thomas  Welles,  whoe  are 
herein  before  Nominated  and  appointed  the  present  Assistants  of  the  said  Com- 
pany, shall  take  the  Oath  before  "'^  said  John  Winthrop  and  John  Mason,  or  one 
of  them,  to  whome  wee  doe  hereby  give  full  power  and  authority  to  Admin- 
ister the  same  accordingly.  Asid  our  further  will  and  pleasure  is,  that  all  and 
every  Governour  or  Deputy  Governour  to  bee  Elected  and  Chosen  by  vertue  of 
theis  presents,  shall  take  the  said  Oath  before  two  or  more  of  the  Assistants  of 
the  said  Company  for  the  tyme  being,  vnto  whome  wee  doe,  by  theis  presents, 
give  full  power  and  authority  to  give  and  Administer  the  said  Oath  accordingly. 
And  the  said  Assistants  and  every  of  them,  and  all  and  every  other  Officer  or 


480  APPENDIX. 

Officers  to  bee  hereafter  Chosen  from  tyme  to  tyme,  to  take  the  said  Oath  before 
the  Governour  or  Deputy  Governour  for  the  tyme  being,  vnto  which  said  Gov- 
ernour  or  Deputy  Governour  wee  doe,  by  theis  presents,  give  full  power  and  au- 
thority to  Administer  the  same  accordingly.  Alld  f  urtber,  of  our  own 
ample  grace,  certeine  knowledge  and  meere  moton  wee  Iiave  given  and 
Graunted,  and  by  theis  presents,  for  vs,  our  heires  and  Successors,  l>oe  give  and 
Graunt  vnto  the  said  Governour  and  Company  of  the  English  Colony  of  Conecti- 
cut  in  New  England  in  America,  and  to  every  Inhabitant  there,  and  to  every 
Person  and  Persons  Tradeing  thither,  And  to  every  such  Person  and  Persons  as 
are  or  shall  bee  free  of  the  said  Collony,  full  power  and  authority  from  tyme  to 
tyme  and  att  all  tymes  hereafter,  to  take.  Ship,  Transport  and  Carry  away,  for  and 
towards  the  Plantaton  and  defence  of  the  said  Collony  such  of  our  loveing  Sub- 
iects  and  Strangers  as  shall  or  will  willingly  accompany  them  in  and  to 
their  said  Collony  and  Plantaton ;  (Except  such  Person  and  Persons  as  are 
or  shall  bee  therein  restrayned  by  vs,  our  heires  and  Successors  ;)  And 
alsoe  to  Ship  and  Transport  all  and  all  manner  of  goods,  Chattells,  Mer- 
chandizes and  other  things  whatsoever  that  are  or  shall  bee  vsefull  or 
necessary  for  the  Inhabitants  of  the  said  Collony  and  may  lawfully  bee 
Transported  thither ;  Neverthelesse,  not  to  bee  discharged  of  payment  to  vs,  our 
heires  and  Successors,  of  the  Dutyes,  Customes  and  Subsidies  which  are  or  ought 
to  bee  paid  or  payable  for  the  same.  Alldl  fllirttaer,  Our  will  and  pleasure 
is,  and  wes  doe  for  vs,  our  heires  and  Successors,  Ordeyne,  Declare  and 
Graunt  vnto  the  said  Governor  and  Company  and  their  Successors,  That  all  and 
every  the  Subiects  of  vs,  our  heires  or  Successors  which  shall  goe  to  Inhabite 
within  the  said  Colony,  and  every  of  their  Children  which  shall  happen  to  bee 
borne  there  or  on  the  Sea  in  goeing  thither  or  returneing  from  thence,  shall  have 
and  enioye  all  liberties  and  Immunities  of  free  and  naturall  Subiects  within  any 
the  Dominions  of  vs,  our  heires  or  Successors,  to  all  intents,  Constructons  and 
purposes  watsoever,  as  if  they  and  every  of  them  were  borne  within  the  Realme 
of  England.  Aaid  wee  doe  authorise  and  impower  the  Governour,  or  in 
his  abscence  the  Deputy  Governor  for  the  tyme  being,  to  appointe  two  or  more  of 
the  said  Assistants  att  any  of  their  Courts  or  Assemblyes  to  bee  held  as  aforesaid, 
to  have  power  and  authority  to  Administer  the  Oath  of  Supremacy  and  obedience 
to  all  and  every  Person  and  Persons  which  shall  att  any  tyme  or  tymes  hereafter 
goe  or  passe  into  the  said  Colony  of  Conecticutt,  vnto  which  said  Assistants  soe 
to  bee  appointed  as  aforesaid,  wee  doe,  by  these  presents,  give  full  power  and 
authority  to  Administer  the  said  Oath  accordingly.  And  wee  doe  flir- 
tlier,  of  our  especiall  grace,  certaine  knowledge  and  meere  moton,  give  and 
Graunt  vnto  the  said  Governor  and  Company  of  the  English  Colony  of  Conecti- 
cutt in  New  England  in  America,  and  their  Successors,  that  itt  shall  and  may  bee 
lawfull  to  and  for  the  Governor  or  Deputy  Governor  and  such  of  the  Assistants 
of  the  said  Company  for  the  tyme  being  as  shall  bee  Assembled  in  any  of  the 
Generall  Courts  aforesaid,  or  in  any  Courts  to  bee  especially  Sumoncd  or  Assem- 
bled for  that  purpose,  or  the  greater  parte  of  them,  whereof  the  Governor  or 
Deputy  Governor  and  Six  of  the  Assistants,  (to  bee  all  wayes  Seaven,)  to  Erect  and 
make  sucli  Judicatories  for  the  liearoing  and  Determining  of  all  Actons,  Causes, 


APPENDIX.  481 

matters  and  tliinges  happeing  within  the  said  Colony  or  Plantaton  and  which  shall 
bee  in  dispute  and  depending  there,  as  they  shall  thinke  fitt  and  convenient ;  And 
alsoe  from  tyme  to  tyme  to  Make,  Ordaine  and  Establish  All  manner  of  wholsome 
and  reasonable  Lawes,  Statutes,  Ordinances,  Directons  and  Instructons,  not  con- 
trary to  the  lawes  of  this  Realme  of  England,  aswell  for  setling  the  foi-mes  and 
Ceremonies  of  Governement  and  Magestracy  fitt  and  necessary  for  the  said  Plan- 
taton and  the  Inhabitants  there  as  for  nameing  and  Stileing  all  sorts  of  Officers, 
both  superior  and  inferior,  which  they  shall  find  needfull  for  the  Governement 
and  Plantaton  of  the  said  Colony,  and  distinguishing  and  setting  forth  of  the 
severall  Dutyes,  Powers  and  Lymitts  of  every  such  Office  and  Place,  and  the 
formes  of  such  Oathes,  not  being  contrary  to  the  Lawes  and  Statutes  of  this  our 
Realme  of  England,  to  bee  Administred  for  the  Executon  of  the  said  severall 
Offices  and  Places ;  As  alsoe  for  the  disposeing  and  Ordering  of  the  Electon  of 
such  of  the  said  Officers  as  are  to  bee  Annually  Chosen,  and  of  such  others  as 
shall  succeed  in  case  of  death  or  removall,  and  Administring  the  said  Oath  to  the 
new  Elected  Officers,  and  Graunting  necessary  Comissions,  and  for  impositon 
of  lawfull  Fines,  Mulcts,  Imprisonment  or  other  Punishment  vpon  Offenders  and 
Delinquents,  according  the  Course  of  other  Corporatons  within  this  our  Kingdome 
of  England,  and  the  same  Lawes,  fines,  Mulcts  and  Executons  to  alter,  change,  re- 
voke, adnull,  release  or  Pardon,  vnder  their  Comon  Seale,  As  by  the  said  Gen- 
erall  Assembly  or  the  maior  part  of  them  shall  bee  thought  fitt ;  And  for  the 
directing,  ruleing  and  disposeing  of  all  other  matters  and  things  whereby  our  said 
people,  Inhabitants  there,  may  bee  soe  religiously,  peaceably  and  civilly  Governed 
as  their  good  life  and  orderly  Conversaton  may  wynn  and  invite  the  Natives  of 
the  Country  to  the  knowledge  and  obedience  of  the  onely  true  God  and  Saviour 
of  mankind,  and  the  Christian  faith,  which  in  our  Royall  intentons  and  the  Ad- 
venturers free  profession  is  the  onely  and  principall  end  of  this  Plantaton  ;  "Wil- 
liug)  Commanding  and  requireing,  and  by  these  presents,  for  vs,  our  heires 
and  Successors,  Ordaineing  and  appointeing  That  all  such  Lawes,  Statutes  and 
Ordinances,  Instructons,  Impositons  and  Directons  as  shall  bee  soe  made  by  the 
Governor,  Deputy  Governor  and  Assistants,  as  aforesaid,  and  published  in  write- 
ing  vnder  their  Comon  Seale,  shall  carefully  and  duely  bee  observed,  kept,  per- 
formed and  putt  in  executon,  according  to  the  true  intent  and  meaning  of  the 
same.  And  these  our  letters  Patent,  or  the  Duplicate  or  Exemplificaton 
thereof,  shall  bee  to  all  and  every  such  Officers,  Superiors  and  inferiors,  from 
tyme  to  tyme  for  the  Putting  of  the  same  Orders,  Lawes,  Statutes,  Ordinances, 
Instructons  and  Directons  in  due  Executon,  against  vs,  our  heires  and  Successors, 
a  sufficient  warrant  and  discharge.  Altd  "Wee  doe  f  urtlieir,  for  vs,  our 
heires  and  Successors,  give  and  Graunt  vnto  the  said  Governor  and  Company  and 
their  Successors,  by  these  presents.  That  itt  shall  and  may  bee  lawfull  to  and  for 
the  Chelfe  Commanders,  Governors  and  Officers  of  the  said  Company  for  the 
tyme  being  whoe  shall  bee  resident  in  the  parts  of  New  England  hereafter  men- 
toned,  and  others  inhabiting  there  by  their  leave,  admittance,  appointment  or  di- 
recton,  from  tyme  to  tyme  and  att  all  tymes  hereafter,  for  their  speciall  defence 
and  safety,  to  Assemble,  Martiall,  Array  and  putt  in  Warlike  posture  the  Inhabit- 
ants of  the  said  Colony,  and  to  Commissionate,  Impower  and  authorise  such  Per- 

31 


482  APPENDIX. 

son  or  Persons  as  they  stall  tliinke  titt  to  lead  and  Conduct  the  said  Inhabitants, 
and  to  encounter,  expulse,  repell  and  resist  by  force  of  Armes,  as  well  by  Sea  as 
by  land.  And  alsoe  to  kill,  Slay  and  destroy,  by  all  fitting  wayes,  enterprizes  and 
means  whatsoever,  all  and  every  such  Person  or  Persons  as  shall  att  any  tyme 
hereafter  Attempt  or  enterprize  the  distructon,  invasion,  detriment  or  annoyance 
of  the  said  Inhabitants  or  Plantaton,  And  to  vse  and  exercise  the  Law  Mart' all 
in  such  Cases  onely  as  occasion  shall  require.  And  to  take  or  surprize  by  all 
wayes  and  meanes  whatsoever,  all  and  every  such  Person  and  Persons,  with  their 
Shipps,  Armour,  Ammuniton  and  other  goods  of  such  as  shall  in  such  hostile 
manner  invade  or  attempt  the  defeating  of  the  said  Plantaton  or  the  hurt  of  tho 
said  Company  and  Inhabitants ;  and  vpon  iust  Causes  to  invade  and  destroy  the 
Natives  or  other  Enemyes  of  the  said  Colony.  Wevertlielesse,  Our  Will 
and  pleasure  is.  And  wee  doe  hereby  Declare  vnto  aU  Christian  Kings,  Prin- 
ces and  States,  That  if  any  Persons  which  shall  hereafter  bee  of  the  said  Com- 
pany or  Plantaton,  or  any  other,  by  appointment  of  the  said  Govei-nor  and  Com- 
pany for  the  tyme  being,  shall  att  any  tyme  or  tymes  hereafter  Robb  or  Spoile  by 
Sea  or  by  land,  and  doe  any  hurt,  violence  or  vnlawfull  hostillity  to  any  of  the 
Subiects  of  vs,  our  heires  or  Successors,  or  any  of  the  Subiects  of  any  Prince  or 
State  beinge  then  in  league  with  vs,  our  heires  or  Successors,  vpon  Complaint  of 
such  iniury  done  to  any  such  Prince  or  State,  or  their  Subiects,  "wee,  our  heires 
and  Successors,  will  make  open  Proclamaton  within  any  parts  of  our  Realme  of 
England  fitt  for  that  purpose,  That  the  Person  or  Persons  commitinge  any  such 
Robbery  or  Spoile,  shall  within  the  tyme  lyraitted  by  such  Proclamaton,  make  full 
restituton  or  satisfacton  of  all  such  iniuries  done  or  committed,  Soe  as  the  said 
Prince  or  others  soe  complayneing  may  bee  fully  satisfied  and  contented.  And  if 
the  said  Person  or  Persons  whoe  shall  committ  any  such  Robbery  or  Spoile  shall 
not  make  satisfacton  accordingly,  within  such  tyme  soe  to  bee  limitted,  That  then 
itt  shall  and  may  be  lawfull  for  vs,  our  heires  and  Successors,  to  putt  such  Person 
or  Persons  out  of  our  Allegiance  and  Protecton.  And  that  it  shall  and  may  bee 
lawfull  and  free  for  all  Princes  or  others  to  Prosecute  with  hostility  such  Ofienders 
and  every  of  them,  their  and  every  of  their  Procurers,  ayders.  Abettors  and 
Councellors  in  that  behalfe.  Provided,  alsoe,  and  our  expresse  will  and 
pleasure  is,  And  wee  doe  by  these  presents  for  vs,  our  heires  and  Suc- 
cessors, Ordeyne  and  appointe  that  these  presents  shall  not  in  any  manner  hinder 
any  of  our  loveing  Subiects  whatsoever  to  vse  and  exercise  the  Trade  of  Fishingo 
vpon  the  Coast  of  New  England  in  America,  but  they  and  every  or  any  of  them 
shall  have  full  and  free  power  and  liberty  to  contynue  and  vse  the  said  Trade  of 
Fishing  vpon  the  said  Coast,  in  any  of  the  Seas  therevnto  adioyning,  or  any  Armes 
of  the  Seas  or  Salt  Water  Rivers  where  they  have  byn  accustomed  to  Fish,  And 
to  build  and  sett  vpon  the  wast  land  belonging  to  the  said  Colony  of  Conecticutt, 
such  Wharfes,  Stages  and  workehouses  as  shall  bee  necessary  for  the  Salting, 
dryeing  and  keepeing  of  their  Fish  to  bee  taken  or  gotten  vpon  that  Coast, — any 
thinge  in  these  presents  conteyned  to  the  contrary  notwithstanding.  And 
Knowe  yee  fiurtlier,  That  Wee,  of  our  more  abundant  grace,  certaine 
knowledge  and  nicere  moton  laave  given,  Graunted  and  Confirmed,  And  by 
theis  presents,  for  vs,  our  heires  and  Successors,  lOoe  give,  Graunt  and  Con- 


APPENDIX.  483 

firme  vnto  the  said  Gova.*noi*  and  Company  and  their  Successors,  All  that  parte 
of  our  Domuiions  in  Newe  England  in  America  bounded  on  the  East  by  Norro- 
gancett  River,  comonly  called  Norroganeett  Bay,  where  the  said  River  falleth 
into  the  Sea,  and  on  the  North  by  the  lyne  of  the  Massachusetts  Plantation,  and 
on  the  South  by  the  Sea,  and  in  longitude  as  the  lyne  of  the  Massachusetts  Colo- 
ny, runinge  from  East  to  West ;  that  is  to  say,  from  the  said  Narroganeett  Bay 
on  the  East  to  the  South  Sea  on  the  West  parte,  with  the  Islands  thereunto  ad- 
ioyneinge,  Together  with  all  firme  lands,  Soyles,  Grounds,  Havens,  Ports,  Rivers, 
Waters,  Fishings,  Mynes,  Myneralls,  Precious  Stones,  Quarries,  and  all  and  sin- 
guler  other  Comodities,  lurisdictons.  Royalties,  Priviledges,  Franeheses,  Prehem- 
inences  and  hereditaments  whatsoever  within  the  said  Traet,  Bounds,  lands  and 
Islands  aforesaid,  or  to  them  or  any  of  them  belonging,  To  liave  and  to 
Iiold  the  same  vnto  the  said  Governor  and  Company,  their  Successors  and  As- 
signes,  for  ever  vpon  Trust  and  for  the  vse  and  benefitt  of  themselves  and  their 
Associates,  freemen  of  the  said  Colony,  their  heires  and  Assignes,  To  bee 
bolden  of  vs,  our  heires  and  Successors,  as  of  our  Manor  of  East  Greenewich, 
in  Free  and  Comon  Soccage,  and  not  in  Capite  nor  by  Knights  Service,  Hf  ield- 
ing  and  Payinge  therefore  to  vs,  our  heires  and  Successors,  onely  the 
Fifth  parte  of  all  the  Care  of  Gold  and  Silver  which  from  tyme  to  tyme  and  att 
all  tymes  hereafter  shall  bee  there  gotten,  had  or  obteyned,  in  liew  of  all  Servi- 
ces, Dutyes  and  Demaunds  whatsoever,  to  bee  to  vs,  our  heires  or  Successors, 
therefore  or  thereout  rendered,  made  or  paid.  And  lastly.  Wee  doe  for  vs, 
our  heires  and  Successors,  Graunt  to  the  said  Governor  and  Company  and  their 
Successors,  by  these  presents,  that  these  our  Letters  Patent  shall  bee  firme,  good 
and  efFectuall  in  the  lawe  to  all  intents,  Constructons  and  purposes  whatsoever,  ac- 
cordinge  to  our  true  intent  and  meaneing  herein  before  Declared,  as  shall  bee 
Construed,  reputed  and  adiudged  most  favourable  on  the  behalfe  and  for  the  bes-t 
benefitt  and  behoofe  of  the  said  Governor  and  Company  and  their  Successors, 
Altbougb  Expresse  raienton  of  the  true  yearely  value  or  cer- 
teinty  of  the  premises,  or  of  any  of  them,  or  of  any  other  Guifts  or  Graunts  by  vs 
or  by  any  of  our  Progenitors  or  Predecessors  heretofore  made  to  the  said  Govern- 
or and  Company  of  the  English  Colony  of  Conecticutt  in  New  England  in  America 
aforesaid  in  theis  presents  is  not  made,  or  any  Statute,  Act,  Ordinance,  Provision, 
Proelamaton  or  Restricton  heretofore  had,  made.  Enacted,  Ordeyned  or  Provided, 
or  any  other  matter.  Cause  or  thinge  whatsoever  to  the  contrary  thereof  in  any 
wise  notwithstanding.  In  "n^itnes  whereof,  wee  have  caused  these  our  Let- 
ters to  bee  made  Patent :  "Witnes  our  Selfe,  att  Westminster,  the  three  and 
Twentieth  day  of  Aprill,  in  the  Fowerteenth  yeare  of  our  Reigne. 
By  writt  of  Privy  Scale.  Ho^ward. 


.484  APPENDIX. 


C. 

Letter  of  His  Majesty  Charles  II.  to  Connecticut,  April  lOth,  1666. 
"Charles  R., 

"  Trusty  and  well  beloved,  we  greet  you  well,  having  received  so  full  and  satis- 
factory an  account  from  our  commissioners,  both  of  the  good  reception  you  have 
given  them,  and  also  of  your  dutifulness  and  obedience  to  us,  we  can  not  but  let 
you  know  how  much  we  are  pleased  therewith,  judging  that  respect  of  yours 
towards  our  officers  to  be  the  true  and  natural  fruit  which  demonstrates  what 
fidelity  and  affection  towards  us  is  rooted  in  your  hearts ;  and  although  your  car- 
riage doth  of  itself  most  justly  deserve  our  praise  and  approbation,  yet  it  seems 
to  be  set  off  with  the  more  lustre  by  the  contrary  deportment  of  the  colony  of  the 
Massachusetts,  as  if  by  their  refractoriness  they  had  designed  to  recommend  and 
heighten  the  merit  of  your  compliance  with  our  directions,  for  the  peaceable  and 
good  government  of  our  subjects  in  those  parts  ;  you  may  therefore  assure  your- 
selves that  we  shall  never  be  unmindful  of  this  your  loyal  and  dutiful  behavior, 
but  shall,  upon  all  occasions,  take  notice  of  it  to  your  advantage,  promising  you 
our  constant  protection  and  royal  favor,  in  all  things  that  may  concern  your  safety, 
peace  and  welfare  ;  and  so  we  bid  you  farewell. 

"Given  at  our  Court,  at  Whitehall,  on  the  10th  day  of  April,  1666,  in  the 
eighteenth  year  of  our  reign.     By  His  Majesty's  command. 
"  Superscribed  to  our  trusty  and  well  beloved,  the  gov-  j 
ernor  and  council  of  the  colony  of  Connecticut,  in  (      WILLIAM   MORRICE." 
New  England."  ' 


D. 

"  New  Haven's  case  stated. 

"  Honored  and  beloved  in  the  Lord, — We,  the  General  Court  of  New  Haven 
colony,  being  sensible  of  the  wrongs  which  this  colony  hath  lately  suffered  by 
your  unjust  pretenses  and  encroachments  upon  our  just  and  proper  rights,  have 
unanimously  consented,  though  with  grief  of  heart,  being  compelled  thereunto,  to 
declare  unto  you,  and  unto  all  whom  the  knowledge  thereof  may  concern,  what 
yourselves  do  or  may  know  to  be  true  as  followeth. 

"  1.  That  the  first  beginners  of  these  plantations  by  the  sea-side  in  these  west- 
ern parts  of  New  England,  being  engaged  to  sundry  friends  in  London,  and  in 
other  places  about  London  (who  purposed  to  plant,  some  with  them  in  the  same 
town,  and  others  as  near  to  them  as  they  might)  to  provide  for  themselves  some 
convenient  places  by  the  sea-side,  arrived  at  Boston  in  the  Massachusetts,  (having 
a  special  right  in  their  patent,  two  of  them  being  joint  purchasers  of  it  with  others, 
and  one  of  them  a  patentee,  and  one  of  the  assistants  chosen  for  the  New  England 


APPENDIX.  485 

company  in  London,)  where  they  abode  all  the  winter  following  ;  but  not  finding 
there  a  place  suitable  to  their  purpose,  were  persuaded  to  view  these  parts,  which 
those  that  viewed  approved  ;  and  before  their  removal,  finding  that  no  English 
were  planted  in  any  place  from  the  fort  (called  Saybrook)  to  the  Dutch,  proposed 
to  purchase  of  the  Indians,  the  natural  proprietors  of  those  lands,  that  whole  tract 
of  land  by  the  sea-coast,  for  themselves  and  those  that  should  come  to  them  ;  which 
they  also  signified  to  their  friends  in  Hartford  in  Connecticut  colony,  and  desired 
that  some  fit  men  from  thence  might  be  employed  in  that  business,  at  their  proper 
cost  and  charges  who  wrote  to  them.  Unto  which  letter  having  received  a  satis- 
factory answer,  they  acquainted  the  Court  of  magistrates  of  Massachusetts  colony 
with  their  purpose  to  remove  and  the  grounds  of  it,  and  with  their  consent  began 
a  plantation  in  a  place  situated  by  the  sea,  called  by  the  Indians  Quillipiack ; 
which  they  did  purchase  of  the  Indians  the  true  proprietors  thereof,  for  themselves 
and  their  posterity ;  and  have  quietly  possessed  the  same  about  six  and  twenty 
years ;  and  have  buried  great  estates  in  buildings,  fencings,  clearing  the  ground, 
and  in  all  sorts  of  husbandry  ;  without  any  help  from  Connecticut  or  dependence 
on  them.  And  by  voluntary  consent  among  themselves,  they  settled  a  civil  court 
and  government  among  themselves,  upon  such  fundamentals  as  were  established 
in  Massachusetts  by  allowance  of  their  patent,  whereof  the  then  governor  of  the 
Bay,  the  Right  Worshipful  Mr.  Winthrop,  sent  us  a  copy  to  improve  for  our  best 
advantage.  These  fundamentals  all  the  inhabitants  of  the  said  Quillipiack  approv- 
ed, and  bound  themselves  to  submit  unto  and  maintain ;  and  chose  Theophilus 
Eaton,  Esq.  to  be  their  governor,  with  as  good  right  as  Connecticut  settled  their 
government  among  themselves,  and  continued  it  above  twenty  years  without  any 
patent. 

"  2.  That  when  the  help  of  Mr.  Eaton  our  governor,  and  some  others  from 
Quillipiack,  was  desired  for  ending  of  a  controversy  at  Wethersfield,  a  town  in 
Connecticut  colony,  it  being  judged  necessary  for  peace  that  one  party  should 
remove  their  dwellings,  upon  equal  satisfying  terms  proposed,  the  governor, 
magistrates,  &c.  of  Connecticut  offered  for  their  part,  that  if  the  party  that  would 
remove  should  find  a  fit  place  to  plant  in  upon  the  river,  Connecticut  would  grant 
it  to  them  ,  and  the  governor  of  Quillipiack  (now  called  New  Haven)  and  the 
rest  there  present,  joined  with  him,  and  promised  that  if  they  should  find  a  fit 
place  for  themselves  by  the  sea-side,  New  Haven  would  grant  it  to  them,  which 
accordingly  New  Haven  performed  ;  and  so  the  town  of  Stamford  began,  and  be- 
came a  member  of  New  Haven  colony,  and  so  continueth  unto  this  day.  Thus 
in  a  public  assembly  in  Connecticut,  was  the  distinct  right  of  Connecticut  upon 
the  river  and  of  New  Haven  by  the  sea-side,  declared,  with  the  consent  of  the 
governor,  magistrates,  ministers,  and  better  sort  of  the  people  of  Connecticut  at 
the  time. 

"  3.  That  sundry  other  townships  by  the  sea-side  and  Southold  on  Long  Island, 
(being  settled  in  their  inheritances  by  right  of  purchase  of  their  Indian  proprie- 
tors,) did  voluntarily  join  themselves  to  New  Haven,  to  be  all  under  one  jurisdic- 
tion, by  a  firm  engagement  to  the  fundamentals  formerly  settled  in  New  Haven  ; 
whereupon  it  was  called  New  Haven  Colony.  The  General  Court,  being  thus 
constituted,  chose  the  said  Theophilus  Eaton,  Esq.,  a  man  of  singular  wiedom, 


486  APPENDIX. 

godliness,  and  experience,  to  be  the  governor  of  New  Haven  Colony  ;  and  they 
chose  a  competent  number  of  magistrates  and  other  officers  for  the  several  towns. 
Mr.  Eaton  so  well  managed  that  great  trust,  that  he  was  chosen  governor  every 
year  while  he  lived.  All  this  time  Connecticut  never  questioned  what  was  done 
at  New  Haven ;  nor  pretended  any  right  to  it,  or  to  any  of  the  towns  belonging 
to  this  colony  ;  nor  objected  against  our  being  a  distinct  colony. 

"  4.  That  when  the  Dutch  claimed  a  right  to  New  Haven,  and  all  along  the 
coast  by  the  sea-side,  it  being  reported  they  would  set  up  the  Prince  of  Orange's 
arms,  the  governor  of  New  Haven,  to  prevent  that,  caused  the  king  of  England's 
arms  to  be  fairly  cut  in  wood,  and  set  upon  a  post  in  the  highway  by  the  sea- 
side, to  vindicate  the  right  of  the  English,  without  consulting  Connecticut  or 
seeking  their  concurrence  therein. 

"  5.  That  in  the  year  1643,  upon  weighty  considerations,  an  union  of  four  dis- 
tinct colonies  was  agreed  upon  by  all  New  England,  (except  Rhode  Island,)  in 
their  several  general  courts,  and  was  established  by  a  most  solemn  confederation ; 
whereby  they  bound  themselves  mutually  to  preserve  unto  each  colony  its  entire, 
jurisdiction  within  itself,  respectively,  and  to  avoid  the  putting  of  two  into  one  by 
any  act  of  their  own  without  consent  of  the  commissioners  from  the  four  United 
Colonies,  which  were  fi'om  that  time,  and  still  are,  called  and  known  by  the 
title  of  the  four  United  Colonies  of  New  England.  Of  these  colonies,  New 
Haven  was  and  is  one.  And  in  this  solemn  confederation  Connecticut  joined 
with  the  rest,  and  with  us. 

"  6.  That  in  the  year  1644,  the  general  court  for  New  Haven  colony,  then  sit- 
ting in  the  town  of  New  Haven,  agreed  unanimously  to  send  to  England  for  a 
patent ;  and  in  the  year  1645,  committed  the  procuring  of  it  to  Mr.  Grigson, 
one  of  our  magistrates,  who  entered  upon  his  voyage  in  January  that  year,  from 
New  Haven,  furnished  with  some  beaver  in  order  thereunto  as  we  suppose.  But 
by  the  providence  of  God,  the  ship  and  all  the  passengers  and  goods  were  lost  at 
sea,  in  their  passage  towards  England,  to  our  great  [grief]  and  the  frustration  of 
the  design  for  the  time ;  after  which  the  troubles  in  England  put  a  stop  to  our 
proceedings  therein.  This  was  done  with  the  consent  and  desire  of  Connecticut 
to  concur  with  New  Haven  therein.  Whereby  the  difference  of  times,  and  of 
men's  spirits  in  them,  may  be  discovered.  For  then  the  magistrates  of  Connec- 
ticut with  consent  of  their  General  Court,  knowing  our  purposes,  desired  to  join 
with  New  Haven  in  procuring  the  patent,  for  common  privileges  to  both  in  their 
different  jurisdictions,  and  left  it  to  Mr.  Eaton's  wisdom  to  have  the  patent  framed 
accordingly.  But  now  they  seek  to  procure  a  patent  without  the  concurrence  of 
New  Haven  5  and  contrary  to  our  minds  expressed  before  the  patent  was  sent  for, 
and  to  their  own  promise,  and  to  the  terms  of  the  confederation,  and  without 
sufficient  warrant  from  their  patent,  they  have  invaded  our  right,  and  seek  to  in- 
volve New  Haven  under  Connecticut  jurisdiction. 

"  7.  That  in  the  year  1646,  when  the  commissioners  first  met  at  New  Haven, 
Keift,  the  then  Dutch  governor,  by  letters  expostulated  with  the  commissioners, 
by  what  warrant  they  met  at  New  Haven  without  his  consent,  seeing  it  and  all 
the  sea-coast  belonged  to  his  principals  in  Holland,  and  to  the  lords  the  States 
General.     The  answer  to  that  letter  was  framed  by  Mr.  Eaton,  governor  of  New 


APPENDIX.  487 

HaveB,  and  then  president  of  the  commission,  approved  by  all  the  commissioners, 
and  sent  in  their  names  with  their  consent  to  the  then  Dutch  governor,  who  never 
replied  therennto. 

"  8.  That  this  colony  in  the  reign  of  the  late  King  Charles  the  First,  received  a 
letter  from  the  committee  of  Lords  and  Commons  for  foreign  plantations,  then 
sitting  at  Westminster,  which  letter  was  delivered  to  our  governor,  Mr.  Eaton, 
for  freeing  the  several  distinct  colonies  of  New  England  from  molestations  by  the 
appealing  of  troublesome  spirits  unto  England,  whereby  they  declared  that  they 
had  dismissed  all  causes  depending  before  them  from  New  England,  and  that  they 
advised  all  inhabitants  to  submit  to  their  respective  governments  there  established, 
and  to  acquiesce  when  their  causes  shall  be  there  heard  and  determined,  as  it  is  to 
be  seen  more  largely  expressed  in  the  original  letter  which  we  have,  subscribed. 
'  Your  assured  friends, 

'  Pembroke,  '  Manchester,  '  Warwick, 

'  W.  Say  and  Seal,         '  Fr.  Dacre,  &c.  '  Denbigh.' 

"  In  this  order  they  subscribed  their  names  with  their  own  hands,  which  we 
have  to  show,  and  they  inscribed  or  directed  this  letter — '  To  our  worthy  fiiends 
the  governor  and  assistants  of  the  plantations  of  New  Haven  in  New  England.' 
W^hereby  you  may  clearly  see  that  the  right  honorable,  the  Earl  of  Warwick,  and 
the  Lord  Viscount  Say  and  Seal,  (lately  one  of  his  majesty  King  Charles  the  Sec- 
ond's most  honorable  privy  council,  as  also  the  right  honorable  Earl  of  Manches- 
ter still  is,)  had  no  purpose,  after  New  Haven  colony,  situated  by  the  sea-side,  was 
settled  to  be  a  distinct  government,  that  it  should  be  put  under  the  patent  for 
Connecticut,  whereof  they  had  only  framed  a  copy  before  any  house  was  erected 
by  the  sea-side  from  the  fort  to  the  Dutch,  which  yet  was  not  signed  and  sealed 
by  the  last  king  for  a  patent ;  nor  had  you  any  patent  till  your  agent,  Mx.  Win- 
throp,  procured  it  about  two  years  since. 

"  9.  That  in  the  year  1 650,  when  the  commissioners  for  the  four  united  colonies 
of  New  England,  met  at  Hartford,  the  now  Dutch  governor  being  then  and 
there  present,  Mr.  Eaton  the  then  governor  of  New  Haven  colony,  complained  of 
the  Dutch  governor's  encroaching  upon  our  colony  of  New  Haven,  by  taking  un- 
der his  jurisdiction  a  township  beyond  Stamford,  called  Greenwich.  All  the  com- 
missioners, (as  well  for  Connecticut  as  for  the  other  colonies,)  concluded  that 
Greenwich  and  four  miles  beyond  it  belongs  to  New  Haven  j  urisdiction ;  where- 
unto  the  Dutch  governor  then  yielded,  and  restored  it  to  New  Haven  colony. 
Thus  were  our  bounds  westward  settled  by  consent  of  all. 

"  10.  That  when  the  honored  governor  of  Connecticut,  John  Winthrop,  Esq., 
had  consented  to  imdertake  a  voyage  for  England  to  procure  a  patent  for  Connec- 
ticut in  the  year  1661,  a  friend  warned  him  by  letter,  not  to  have  his  hand  in  so 
unrighteous  an  act,  as  so  far  to  extend  the  line  of  their  patent,  that  the  colony  of 
New  Haven  should  be  involved  within  it.  For  answer  thereunto,  he  was  pleased 
to  certify  that  friend,  in  two  letters  which  he  wrote  from  two  several  places  before 
his  departure,  that  no  such  thing  was  intended, but  rather  the  contrary;  and  that 
the  magistrates  had  agreed  and  expressed  in  the  presence  of  some  ministers,  that 
if  their  line  should  reach  us,  (which  they  knew  not,  the  copy  being  in  England,) 


488  APPENDIX, 

yet  New  Haven  colony  should  be  at  liberty  to  join  with  them  or  not.  This 
agreement,  so  attested,  made  us  secure,  who  also  could  have  procured  a  patent  for 
ourselves  within  our  own  known  bounds  according  to  purchase,  without  doing  any 
wrong  to  Connecticut  in  their  j  ust  bounds  and  limits. 

'"11.  That  notwithstanding  all  the  premises,  in  the  year  1662,  when  you  had 
received  your  patent  under  his  majesty's  hand  and  seal,  contrary  to  your  promise 
and  solemn  confederation,  and  to  common  equity,  at  your  first  general  assembly, 
(which  yet  could  not  be  called  general  without  us,  if  we  were  under  your  patent, 
seeing  none  of  us  were  by  you  called  thereunto,)  you  agreed  among  yourselves,  to 
treat  with  New  Haven  colony  about  union,  by  your  commissioners  chosen  for  that 
end  within  two  or  three  days  after  the  assembly  was  dissolved.  But  before  the 
ending  of  that  session,  you  made  an  unrighteous  breach  in  our  colony,  by  taking 
under  your  patent  some  of  ours  from  Stamford,  and  from  Guihord,  and  from 
Southold,  contrary  to  j'our  engagements  to  New  Haven  colony,  and  without  our 
consent  or  knowledge.  This  being  thus  done,  some  sent  fi'om  you  to  treat  with 
us,  showed  some  of  ours  your  patent ;  which  being  read,  they  declared  to  yours 
that  New  Haven  colony  is  not  at  all  mentioned  in  your  patent,  and  gave  you  some 
reasons  why  they  believed  that  the  king  did  not  intend  to  put  this  colony  under 
Connecticut  without  our  desire  or  knowledge ;  and  they  added  that  you  took  a 
preposterous  course,  in  first  dismembering  this  colony,  and  after  that  treating  with 
it  about  union ;  which  is  as  if  one  man  proposing  to  treat  with  another  about 
union,  first  cut  ofi'from  him  an  arm,  and  a  leg,  and  an  ear,  then  to  treat  with  him 
about  union.  Reverend  Mr.  Stone  also,  the  teacher  of  the  Church  at  Hartford, 
was  one  of  the  committee,  who  being  asked  what  he  thought  of  this  action,  an- 
swered, that  he  would  not  justify  it. 

"  12.  After  that  conference,  our  committee  sent,  by  order  of  the  General  Court, 
by  two  of  our  magistrates,  and  two  of  our  elders,  a  writing  containing  sundry 
other  reasons  for  our  not  joining  with  you  ;  who  also,  finding  that  you  persisted 
in  your  own  will  and  way,  declared  to  you  our  own  resolution  to  appeal  to  his 
majesty  to  explain  his  true  intendment  and  meaning  in  your  patent,  whether  it 
was  to  subject  this  colony  under  it  or  not ;  being  persuaded,  as  we  still  are,  that  it 
neither  was  nor  is  his  royal  will  and  pleasure  to  confound  this  colony  with  yours, 
which  would  destroy  the  so  long  continued  and  so  strongly  settled  distinction  of 
the  four  United  Colonies  of  New  England^  without  our  desire  or  knowledge. 

"13.  That,  accordingly,  we  forthwith  sent  our  appeal  to  be  humbly  presented 
to  his  Majesty,  by  some  friends  in  London,  yet  out  of  our  dear  and  tender  respect 
to  Mr.  Winthrop's  peace  and  honor,  some  of  us  advised  those  friends  to  commu- 
nicate our  papers  to  Honored  Mr.  Winthrop  himself,  to  the  end  that  we  might 
find  out  some  effectual  expedient,  to  put  a  good  end  to  this  imcomfortable  differ- 
ence between  you  and  us, — else  to  present  our  humble  address  to  his  Majesty. 
Accordingly  it  was  done  ;  and  Mr.  Winthrop  stopped  the  proceeding  of  our  ap- 
peal, by  undertaking  to  our  friends  that  matters  should  be  issued  to  our  satisfac- 
tion, and  in  order  thereimto  that  he  was  pleased  to  write  a  letter  to  Major  Mason, 
your  deputy  governor,  and  the  rest  of  the  court  of  Connecticut  Colony,  from 
London,  dated  March  7,  1663,  in  these  words  : 


APPENDIX.  489 

"  Gentlemen  :  I  am  informed  by  some  gentlemen  who  are  authorized  to  seek 
remedy  here,  that  since  you  had  the  late  patent  there  hath  been  injury  done  to 
the  government  at  New  Haven,  and  in  particular  at  Greenwich  and  Stamford,  in 
admitting  several  of  the  inhabitants  there  unto  freedom  with  you,  and  appointing 
officers  which  hath  caused  division  in  the  said  towns  which  may  prove  of  danger- 
ous consequence  if  not  kindly  prevented.  I  do  hope  the  sin  of  it  is  from  misun- 
derstanding and  not  from  design  of  prejudice  to  that  colony ;  for  when  I  gave 
assurance  to  their  friends  that  their  rights  and  interests  should  not  be  disregarded 
or  prejudiced  by  the  patent,  but  if  both  governments  would  with  unanimous 
agreement  unite  in  one,  their  friends  judge  of  advantage  to  both.  And  I  must 
further  let  you  know  that  testimony  here  doth  affirm  that  I  gave  assurance  before 
authority  here,  that  it  was  not  intended  to  meddle  with  any  town  or  plantation 
that  was  settled  under  any  other  government.  Had  it  been  otherwise  intended 
or  declared,  it  had  been  injurious  in  taking  out  the  patent,  not  to  have  inserted  a 
proportionable  number  of  their  names  in  it.  Now  upon  the  whole,  having  had 
serious  conference  with  their  friends  authorized  by  them,  and  with  others  who  are 
friends  to  both,  to  prevent  a  tedious  and  chargeable  trial  and  uncertain  events  here, 
I  promise  them  to  give  you  speedily  this  representation  how  far  you  are 
engaged.  If  any  injury  hath  been  done  by  admitting  of  freemen  or  appointing 
officers  or  other  unjust  intermeddling  with  New  Haven  colony,  in  one  kind  or 
other,  without  the  approbation  of  the  government,  that  it  be  forthwith  recalled, 
and  that  for  the  future  there  will  be  no  imposing  in  any  kind  upon  them,  nor  ad- 
mitting of  any  members  without  mutual  consent,  but  that  all  things  be  acted  as 
loving  neighboring  colonies  as  before  such  patent  was  granted,  and  unto  this  I 
judge  you  are  obliged.  I  have  engaged  to  their  agent  here  that  this  will  be  by 
you  performed,  and  they  have  thereupon  forborne  to  give  you  or  me  any  further 
trouble  ;  but  they  do  not  doubt  that  upon  future  consideration  there  may  be  some 
right  understanding  between  both  governments,  that  a  union  of  friendly  joining 
may  be  established  to  the  satisfaction  of  all,  which  at  my  arrival  I  shall  endeavor 
(God  willing,)  to  promote,  not  having  more  at  present  in  the  case,  I  rest  your  hum- 
ble servant,  John  Winthrop." 

Tlie  copy  of  this  letter  was  sent  to  Mr.  Leete,  unsealed,  with  Mr.  Winthrop's 
consent,  and  was  written  with  his  own  hand ;  and  the  substance  of  this  agree- 
ment between  some  of  our  friends  in  London  is  fully  attested  by  them  in  their 
letters  to  some  of  us.  Say  not  that  Mr.  Winthrop  in  acting  in  this  agreement  is 
nothing  to  you,  for  he  acted  therein  as  your  public  and  common  agent  and  pleni- 
potentiary, and  therefore  his  acting  in  that  capacity  and  relation  are  yours  in  him. 

"  14.  That  after  Mr.  Winthrop's  return,  when  some  from  you  treated  again 
with  our  committee  about  union,  it  was  answered  by  our  committee  that  we  could 
not  admit  any  treaty  with  you  about  that  matter  till  we  might  treat  as  an  entire 
colony,  our  members  being  restored  to  us  who  have  been  unrighteously  withheld 
from  us,  whereby  those  parties  have  been  many  ways  injurious  to  our  government 
and  disturbers  of  our  peace — which  is  and  will  be  a  bar  to  any  such  treaty,  till  it 
be  removed,  for  till  then  we  cannot  join  with  you  in  one  government  without  a 
fellowship  in  your  sin. 


490  APPENDIX. 

"  15.  That  after  this,  nothing  being  done  to  our  j  ust  satisfaction,  at  the  last  meet- 
ing of  the  commissioners  from  the  four  colonies  of  JSTew  England,  at  Boston,  on 
the  —  day  of  November  1663,  the  commissioners  from  New  Haven  colony 
exhibited  to  the  Commissioners  their  confederates  a  complaint  of  the  great  injuries 
done  to  this  colony  by  Connecticut  in  the  presence  of  your  commissioners,  who 
for  answer  thereunto  showed  what  treaties  they  had  with  New  Haven ;  but  that 
plea  was  inconsiderable,  though  you  persisting  unrighteously  in  withholding  our 
members  from  us,  whereby  our  wounds  remain  unhealed,  being  kept  open  and  con- 
tinually bleeding.  The  result  of  the  commissioners'  debates  about  that  complaint 
was  in  these  words : 

"  The  commissioners  of  Massachusetts  and  Plymouth,  having  considered  the 
complaints  exhibited  by  New  Haven  against  Connecticut  for  infringing  their  power 
of  jurisdiction,  as  in  the  complaint  is  more  particularly  expressed,  together  with 
the  answer  returned  thereto  by  Connecticut  commissioners,  with  some  debates 
and  conferences  that  have  passed  between  them,  do  judge  meet  to  declare  that 
the  said  colony  of  New  Haven  being  owned  in  the  articles  of  confederation  as 
distinct  from  Connecticut,  and  having  been  so  owned  bj'  the  colonies  in  their 
present  meeting  in  all  their  actings,  may  not,  by  any  act  of  violence,  have  their 
liberty  of  jurisdiction  infringed  upon  by  any  other  of  the  united  colonies,  without 
breach  of  the  articles  of  confederation ;  and  that  where  any  act  of  power  hath 
been  exerted  against  their  authority,  that  the  same  ought  to  be  recalled,  and  their 
power  reserved  to  them  entire  until  such  time  as  in  an  orderly  way  it  shall  be  other- 
wise disposed  of,  and  for  particular  grievances  mentioned  in  the  complaint,  they 
ought  to  be  referred  to  the  next  meeting  at  Hartford,  &c." 

"  Now  we  suppose  that  when  they  speak  of  disposing  of  it  otherwise  than  in  an 
orderly  way,  they  mean  with  our  free  consent,  there  being  no  other  orderly  way ; 
by  an  act  or  power  of  the  united  colonies  for  disposing  of  the  colony  of  New 
Haven,  otherwise  than  as  it  is  a  distinct  colony,  having  entire  jurisdiction  within 
itself,  which  our  confederates  were  bound  by  their  solemn  confederation  to  preserve 
inviolate. 

"  16.  That  before  your  General  Assembly  in  October  last,  1663,  our  committee 
sent  a  letter  unto  the  said  assembly,  whereby  they  did  request  that  our  members 
by  you  unjustly  sent  from  us,  should  be  restored  to  us  according  to  our  former 
frequent  desires  and  according  to  Mr.  Winthrop's  letter  and  promises  to  authority 
in  England,  and  according  to  justice  and  the  conclusion  of  the  commissioners  at 
their  last  session  in  Boston,  whereunto  you  returned  a  real  negative  answer,  con- 
trary to  all  promises,  by  making  one  Brown  your  constable  at  Stamford,  who  hath 
been  sundry  ways  injurious  to  us,  and  hath  scandalously  acted  in  the  highest 
degree  of  contempt  not  only  against  the  authority  of  this  jurisdiction,  but  also  of 
the  king  himself,  pulling  down  with  contumelies  the  declaration  which  was  sent 
thither  by  the  court  of  magistrates  for  this  colony  in  the  king's  name,  and  com- 
manded to  be  set  up  in  a  public  place  that  it  might  be  read  and  obeyed  by  all  his 
majesty's  subjects  inhabiting  our  town  of  Stamford. 

"  17.  That  thereupon  at  a  General  Court  hold  at  New  Haven  for  this  jurisdic- 
tion the  22d  day  of  October  1663,  the  deputies  for  this  General  Court  signified 
the  minds  of  our  freemen  as  not  all  satisfied  with  the  proposals  of  the  committee 


APPENDIX.  491 

from  Connecticut,  but  thought  there  should  be  no  more  treaty  with  them  unless 
they  first  restore  us  to  our  right  state  again.  The  matter  was  largely  debated, 
and  this  General  Court  considering  how  they  of  Connecticut  do  cast  our  motion 
in  the  forementioned  letter  and  gave  us  no  answer  but  that  contrary  thereunto  as 
is  reported,  have  further  encouraged  those  of  Guilford  and  Stamford,  therefore  this 
court  did  them  order  that  no  treaty  be  made  by  this  colony  with  Connecticut  be- 
fore such  acts  of  power  exerted  upon  any  of  our  towns,  be  revoked  and  recalled 
according  to  Hon.  Mr.  Winthrop's  letter  enjoining  the  same  common  advice  and 
our  frequent  desires. 

"  18.  That  in  this  juncture  of  time  we  received  two  letters  from  England  men- 
tioned in  the  following  declaration  published  by  the  court  of  magistrates  upon  that 
occasion  in  these  words  : 

"  Whereas,  This  colony  hath  received  one  letter  under  his  majesty's  royal  hand 
and  seal  manual  in  red  wax  annexed,  bearing  date  the  21st  of  June  1663,  from 
his  Royal  Court  at  Whitehall,  directed  to  his  trusty  and  well  beloved  subjects,  the 
governor  and  deputy  governor  and  assistants  of  the  Massachusetts,  Plymouth, 
New  Haven,  and  Connecticut  colonies  in  New  England  ;  and  one  other  letter 
from  the  Lords  of  his  Majesty's  most  Hon.  Privy  Council,  bearing  date  the  24th 
of  June  in  the  year  aforesaid,  superscribed  for  his  majesty's  special  service,  and 
directed  to  our  very  loving  friend,  John  Endicott,  Esq.,  governor  of  his  majesty's 
plantation  in  New  England,  and  to  the  governor  and  council  of  the  colony  of 
Massachusetts,  &e.  respectively,  and  by  order  of  the  General  Court  at  Boston 
recorded  in  the  court  records,  it  is  particularly  directed  to  the  colony  of  New 
Haven,  in  which  letters  his  majesty  hath  commanded  this  colony  many  matters  of 
right  very  much  respecting  his  majesty's  service  and  the  good  of  this  county  in 
general,  expecting  upon  displeasure  the  strict  observance  thereof,  which  this  court, 
his  colony  being  situated  by  the  sea  side  and  so  fully  accommodated  to  fulfil  his 
majesty's  commands  are  resolved  to  their  utmost  to  obey  and  fulfil ;  but  in  their 
consultation  thereabouts,  they  find  through  the  disloyal  and  seditious  principles 
and  practices  of  some  men  of  inconsiderable  interests,  some  of  his  majesty's  good 
subjects  in  this  colony  have  been  seduced  to  send  themselves  from  this  colony,  by 
which  decision  his  majesty's  affairs  in  these  parts  are  like  to  suffer,  the  peace  of 
this  country  to  be  endangered,  and  the  heathen  among  us  scandalized,  in  case 
some  speedy  course  be  not  taken  for  the  prevention  thereof,  the  which,  if  we 
should  connive  at,  especially  at  this  time,  his  majesty  having  so  particularly  direc- 
ted his  royal  commands,  to  this  colony  as  aforesaid,  we  might  justly  incur  his  dis- 
pleasure against  us.  This  court  doth,  therefore,  in  his  majesty's  name,  require  all 
the  members  and  inhabitants  of  this  colony  heartily  to  close  in  with  the  endeavors 
of  the  governor  and  assistants  thereof  for  fulfilling  his  majesty's  commands  in  the 
said  letters  expressed,  and  in  order  thereunto  to  return  to  their  obedience,  and 
paying  their  arrears  and  rates  for  defraying  the  necessary  charges  of  the  colony 
and  other  dues  within  six  days  after  the  publication  hereof,  unto  such  person  or 
persons  as  are  or  shall  be  appointed  to  collect  the  same  in  accordance  to  the  laws 
and  order  of  this  colony,  all  which  being  done,  this  court  will  forever  pass  by  all 
former  disobedience  to  this  government ;  but  if  any  shall  presume  to  stand  out 
against  his  majesty's  pleasure  so  declared  as  aforesaid  concerning  this  colony,  at 


492  APPENDIX. 

their  peril  be  it.  This  court  sliall  not  fail  to  call  the  said  persons  to  strict  account 
and  proceed  against  them  as  disloyal  to  his  majesty  and  disturbers  of  the  peace  of 
this  colony,  according  to  law. 

"  This  declaration  being  grounded  in  general  upon  his  majesty's  command,  ex- 
pressed in  these  letters,  and  in  special  in  order  to  the  prevention  of  his  majesty's 
colonies,  the  letter  of  our  governor  requiring  strict  observance  of  the  same  under 
penalty  of  displeasure,  of  one  thousand  pounds  fine,  and  therefore  in  ease  any  dif- 
ference should  arise  to  his  majesty  on  these  accounts  we  must  be  enforced  to  lay 
the  cause  of  it  at  your  door,  because  when  it  was  sent  to  the  several  towns  of  that 
colony  and  set  up  in  public  places  to  be  seen  and  read  of  all  that  all  might  obey  it, 
it  was  at  Stamford  violently  plucked  down  by  Brown,  your  constable,  and  with 
reproachful  speeches  rejected,  though  sent  in  his  majesty's  name  and  authority  of 
our  court  of  magistrates ;  and  after  it  was  published  at  Guilford,  Bray  Rossiter 
and  his  son  hastened  to  Connecticut  to  require  your  aid  against  this  government, 
which  accordingly  you  too  hastily  granted,  for  on  the  30th  day  of  December  1663, 
two  of  your  magistrates  with  sundry  young  men  and  your  marshal  came  speedily 
to  Guilford  accompanied  with  Rossiter  and  his  son,  and  countenancing  them  and 
their  party  against  the  authority  of  this  General  Court,  that  you  knew  to  be 
obnoxious  they  were  formerly  to  this  jurisdiction  for  contempt  of  authority 
and  seditious  practices,  and  that  they  have  been  the  ring-leaders  of  this  rent,  and 
that  Bray  Rossiter,  the  father,  hath  been  long  and  still  is  a  man  of  turbulent,  rest- 
less, factious  spirit,  and  whose  design  j'ou  have  cause  to  suspect  to  be  to  cause  a 
war  between  these  two  colonies  or  to  ruin  New  Haven  colony,  without  sending  a 
writing  before  to  our  governor  to  be  informed  concerning  the  truth  in  this  matter. 
Sundry  horse,  we  are  informed,  accompanied  them  to  Guilford,  whither  they  came 
at  an  unseasonable  time,  about  10  o'clock  in  the  night,  those  short  days  when  you 
might  rationally  think  that  all  people  were  gone  to  bed,  and  by  shooting  sundry 
guns,  some  of  yours  of  their  party  in  Guilford  alarmed  the  town,  which,  when  the 
governor  took  notice  of,  and  of  the  unsatisfying  answers  given  to  such  as  inquired- 
the  reason  of  that  disturbance,  he  suspected  that,  not  without  cause,  hostile  attempts 
were  intended  by  their  company ;  whereupon  he  sent  a  letter  to  New  Haven  to 
inform  the  magistrates  there  concerning  matters  at  Guilford,  that  many  were 
affrighted  ;  and  he  desired  that  the  magistrates  at  New  Haven  would  presently- 
come  to  their  succor,  and  as  many  of  the  troopers  as  could  be  got,  alleging  for  a 
reason  his  apprehensions  of  their  desperate  resolutions.  The  governor's  messen- 
gers all  excited  to  haste  as  apprehending  danger,  and  reporting  to  them  at  Bran- 
ford,  they  went  up  in  arms,  hastening  to  their  relief  at  Guilford  which  the  governor 
required  with  speed.  Hereupon  New  Haven  was  also  alarmed  that  night  by  beat- 
ing the  drum,  &:c.  to  warn  the  town  militia  to  be  ready.  This  fear  was  not  cause- 
less, for  what  else  could  be  gathered  from  the  preparations  of  pistols,  bullets, 
swords,  &c.  which  they  brought  with  them,  and  by  the  threatening  speeches  given 
out  by  some  of  them,  as  is  attested  by  the  depositions  of  some,  subscriptions  of 
others,  which  we  have  by  us  to  show  when  need  require ;  and  your  two  magis- 
trates themselves,  who  ought  to  have  the  king's  peace  among  their  own  party  in 
their  own  speeches,  threatened  our  governor  that  if  any  thing  was  done  against 
these  men,  viz.,  Rossiter  and  his  party,  Connecticut  would  take  it  as  done  against 


APPENDIX.  493 

themselves,  for  they  were  bound  to  protect  them  ;  and  they  rose  high  in  threaten- 
ings.  Yet  they  joined  therewith  their  design  of  another  conference  with  New 
Haven,  pretending  their  purpose  of  granting  to  us  what  we  should  desire,  so  far 
as  they  could,  if  we  would  unite  with  them  ;  but  they  held  our  members  from  us 
and  upheld  them  in  their  animosities  against  us.  Is  this  the  way  to  union  ?  And 
what  can  you  grant  us  which  we  have  not  in  our  own  right  within  ourselves,  with- 
out you?  Tea,  it  is  the  birthright  of  our  posterity  which  we  may  not  barter 
away  from  them  by  treaties  with  you.  It  is  our  purchased  inheritance,  which  no 
wise  man  would  part  with  upon  a  treaty  to  receive  in  lieu  thereof  a  lease  of  the 
same  upon  your  terms  who  have  right  thereunto.  And  why  is  our  union  with 
you  by  coming  under  your  patent  urged  now  as  necessary  for  peace,  seeing  we 
have  enjoyed  peace  mutually  while  we  have  been  distinct  colonies  for  about  twenty 
years  past  ?  And  why  do  you  separate  the  things  which  God  hath  joined  together 
in  righteousness  and  peace — seeing  you  persist  in  your  unrighteous  dealing  and 
persuade  us  to  peace  ?  It  is  true  we  all  came  to  New  England  for  the  same  ends, 
and  that  we  all  agree  in  some  main  things,  but  it  doth  not  follow  from  thence  we 
ought  therefore  to  unite  with  you  in  the  same  jurisdiction,  for  the  same  may  be 
said  of  all  the  united  colonies  which  nevertheless  are  distinct  colonies. 

''  20.  That  upon  a  more  diligent  search  of  your  patent  we  find  that  New  Haven 
colony  is  not  included  within  the  line  of  your  patent,  for  we  suppose  that  your 
bounds  according  to  the  expression  of  your  patent  may  be,  in  a  just  grammatical 
construction,  so  cleared  that  this  colony  and  every  part  of  it,  may  be  mathemati- 
cally demonstrated  to  be  exempted  from  it, 

"21.  That  the  premises  being  thoroughly  weighed,  it  will  be  your  wisdom 
and  way  to  desist  wholly  from  endeavoring  to  draw  us  into  a  imion  under  your 
patent  by  any  treaty  for  the  future,  and  apply  yourselves  to  your  duty  towards 
God,  the  king,  and  us.  1st.  Towards  God,  that  you  fear  him  and  therefore 
repent  of  your  unrighteous  dealings  towards  us  and  repair  what  you  have  done 
amiss  by  restoring  our  numbers  without  delay  unto  us  again,  that  you  may  escape 
the  wrath  of  God  which  is  revealed  from  heaven  against  all  unrighteousness  and 
against  all  that  despise  his  holy  name,  especially  among  the  heathen,  which  you 
have  done  thereby.  2d.  Towards  the  king,  that  you  may  honor  him  by  looking 
at  us  as  a  distinct  colony  within  ourselves  as  you  see  by  the  premises  his  majesty 
doth,  and  by  restoring  to  us  our  former  entire  state  and  our  numbers  in  obedience 
to  his  majesty,  who  hath  commanded  us  a  distinct  colony  to  serve  him  in  weighty 
affairs,  and  wherein  if  you  hinder  us,  (as  you  will  if  you  still  withhold  our  mem- 
bers from  us  as  much  as  in  you  lieth,)  you  will  incur  his  majesty's  just  and  high 
displeasure,  who  hath  not  given  you  in  your  patent  the  least  appearance  of  just 
grounds  for  your  laying  claim  to  us.  3d.  To  us,  your  neighbors,  your  brethren, 
your  confederates  by  virtue  whereof  it  is  your  duty  to  preserve  unto  us  our  colony, 
state  power,  and  privileges  against  all  other  that  would  oppose  us,  therein  or 
would  impose  upon  us.  Is  Rossiter  and  his  party  of  such  value  with  you,  that 
what  this  jurisdiction  doth  against  them  your  colony  will  take  it  as  done  to  them- 
selves ?  But  if  it  be  done  as  one  of  your  committee  is  reported  to  have  expressed 
it,  that  you  must  perform  your  promise  to  them  as  Joshua  and  the  elders  of  Israel 
did  to  the  Gibeonites,  do  you  not  see  the  sundry  disparities  between  that  vow  and 


4:94:  APPENDIX. 

yours  ?  or  do  you  indeed  make  confidence  of  your  vow  to  Giheonites  if  you  term 
them  so ;  and  without  regard  to  your  conscience  break  your  promise  and  most 
solemn  confederation  to  Israelites.  Doubtless  it  will  be  safe  for  this  colony  to  join 
in  one  government  with  persons  of  such  principles  and  practices,  and  treaty  will 
be  able  to  bring  us  to  it. 

We  believe  that  our  righteous  God  to  whom  we  have  solemnly  commended  and 
committed  our  righteous  cause,  will  protect  us  against  all  that  shall  do  any  wrong 
or  oppress  us,  neither  will  he  at  all  doubt  the  justice  of  his  majesty  our  king  as 
well  as  yours,  and  of  his  most  honorable  council,  but  that  upon  leaving  the  business 
open  before  them  they  will  effectually  relieve  against  your  unjust  encroachments 
as  the  matter  shall  require. 

"  We  desire  peace  and  love  between  us  and  that  we  may  for  the  future  live  in 
love  and  peace  together  as  distinct  neighbor  colonies,  as  we  did  about  twenty  years 
before  you  received  and  misunderstood  and  so  abused  your  patent  that  your  un- 
comfortable and  afflictive  exercises  would  issue  herein.  We  have  so  long  suffered 
for  peace  sake,  now  it  is  high  time  to  bring  that  unbrotherly  contest  wherewith 
you  have  troubled  us,  to  a  peaceable  issue.  In  order  thereunto  we  do  offer  j'oii 
this  choice,  either  to  return  our  members  unto  us  voluntarily,  which  will  be  your 
honor  and  a  confirmation  of  your  mutual  love,  or  to  remove  them  to  some  other 
plantation  within  your  own  bounds  and  free  us  wholly  from  j'ou  for  we  may  not 
bear  it  that  such  seditious,  disorderly  persons  shall  continue  within  the  towns  of 
this  colony  to  disturb  our  peace,  disperse  our  government  and  disquiet  our  mem- 
bers, and  disable  us  to  obey  the  king's  command.  But  if  they  stay  where  they 
now  are,  we  shall  take  our  time  to  proceed  according  to  justice,  especially  with 
Brown  for  his  contempt  of  the  declaration  and  [his  disregard]  of  the  king's  com- 
mands and  authority  in  this  jurisdiction,  and  with  Bray  Rossiter  and  his  son  for  all 
their  seditious  practices.  Lastly,  for  preventing  any  misapprehension,  we  como 
here  to  explain  our  meaning  in  any  passages  in  this  writing  which  may  seem  to 
reflect  censure  of  unrighteous  dealing  with  us  upon  your  act  in  General  Assembly, 
that  we  may  mean  only  such  as  have  been  active  against  us  therein. 

"  For  the  commonwealth,  by  order  of  the  General  Court  of  New  Haven 
Colony. 

"James  Bishop,  Secretary. 

"New  Haven,  March  9,  1663-4." 


APPENDIX. 


495 


STATE  AND  COLONIAL  OFFICERS, 


FROM   1639   TO   1818. 


GOVERNORS. 


John  Haynes, 

Edward  Hopkins, 

George  Wyllys, 

Thomas  Welles, 

John  Webster, 

John  Winthrop, 

William  Leete, 

Robert  Treat, 

[Sir  Edmund  Andross, 

Robert  Treat, 

Fitz  John  Winthrop, . . . 
Gurdon  Saltonstall, . . . . 

Joseph  Taleott, 

Jonathan  Law, 

Roger  Wolcott, 

Thomas  Fitch, ........ 

William  Pitkin, 

Jonathan  Trumbull, . . . 
Matthew  Griswold, .... 
Samuel  Huntington, . . . 

Oliver  Wolcott, 

Jonathan  Trumbull, . . . 

John  Treadwell, 

Roger  Griswold, 

John  Cotton  Smith  * . . . 


1639 
1640 
1642 
1655 
1656 
1657 
1676 
1683 
1687 
1689 
1698 
1707 
1724 
1741 
1750 
1754 
1766 
1769 
1784 
1786 
1796 
1798 
1809 
1811 
1813 


1653 
1654 

1658 

1676 
1683 
1687 
1689 
1698 
17.07 
1724 
1741 
1750 
1754 


1766,-12 


1769 
1784 
1786 
1796 
1798 
1809 
1811 
1812 
1817 


DEP.  OR  LT.-GOVERNORS. 


Roger  Ludlow, 

John  Haynes, 

George  Wyllys, 

Edward  Hopkins, . . . 
Thomas  Welles, .... 

John  Webster, 

John  Winthrop, 

John  Mason, 

William  Leete, 

Robert  Treat, 

James  Bishop, 

William  Jones, 

Nathan  Gold, 

Joseph  Taleott, 

Jonathan  Law, 

Roger  Wolcott, 

Thomas  Fitch, 

William  Pitkin, 

Jonathan  Trumbull,. 
Matthew  Griswold, . , 
Samuel  Huntington,. 

Oliver  Wolcott, 

Jonathan  Trumbull,. 
John  Treadwell, . . . . 
Roger  Griswold, ... 
.John  Cotton  Smith, . 
Chauneey  Goodrich, 
Jonathan  Ingersoll,t. 


1639 
1640 
1641 
1643 
1654 
1655 
1658 
1660 
1669 
1676 
1683 
1692 
1708 
1724 
1724 
1741 
1750 
1754 
1766 
1769 
1784 
1786 
1796 
1798 
1809 
1811 
1813 
1816 


1648 
1652 

1653 
1659 


1669 
1676 
1708 
1692 
1697 
1724 
1724 
1741 
1750 
1754 
1766 
1769 
1784 
1786 
1796 
1798 
1809 
1811 
1813 
1815 
1818 


SECRETARIES  OF  STATE. 

First 
choB'n. 

1639 
1640 
1648 
1658 
1664 
1696 
1709 

Last 

chosen. 

1640 
1648 
1658 
1667 
1696 
1709 
1712 

No. 
yrs. 

1 
8 

10 

8 
28 
13 

3 

TREASURERS. 

First 
clios'n. 

Last 
chos*u. 

1652 
1648 
1659 
1678 
1679 
1718 
1749 

No. 
yrs. 

5 

7 

7 

19 

1 

37 

31 

Edward  Hopkins, 

Thomas  Welles, 

Thomas  Welles, 

William  Whiting, 

John  Taleott, 

1639 
1641 
1652 
1659 

1678 
1679 
1718 

Daniel  Clark, 

John  Allen, 

John  Taleott, 

William  Pitkin, 

Joseph  Whiting, 

John  Whiting, 

Eleazer  Kimberly, 

Caleb  Stanley, 

*The  successors  of  Governor  Smith,- under  the  Constitution,  have  been,  Oliver  Wolcott, 
Gideon  Tomlinson,  John  S.  Peters,  Henry  W.  Edwards,  Samuel  A.  Foote,  William  W. 
Ellsworth,  Chauneey  F.  Cleveland,  Roger  S.  Baldwin,  Isaac  Toucey,  Clark  Bissell,  Joseph  Trum- 
bull, Thomas  H.  Seymour,  Charles  H.  Pond,  and  Henry  Dutton. 

t  The  Lieutenant-Governors  under  the  Constitution  have  been— Jonathan  Ingersoll,  David  Plant, 
John  S.  Peters,  Thaddeus  Betts,  Ebenezer  Stoddard,  Charles  Hawley,  Wm.  S.  Holabird,  Reuben 
Booth,  Noyes  Billings,  Charles  J.  McCurdy,  Thomas  Backus,  Charles  H.  Pond,  and  Alexander  H. 
HoUey. 


496 


APPENDIX. 


SECRETARIES  OF  STATE 

Hezekiah  Wyllys, .... 

George  Wyllys, 

Samuel  Wyllys, 

Thomas  Day,* 


First 

Last 

No. 

chos'n. 

chos'n. 

yrs. 

1712 

1735 

23 

1735 

1796 

61 

1796 

1810 

14 

1810 

1 

1818 

8 

TREASURERS. 


Nathaniel  Stanley, 

Joseph  Talcott, 

John  Lawrence, 

Jedediah  Huntington , 

Peter  Colt, 

Andrew  Kingsbury,!. 


1749 
1755 
1769 
1789 
1789 
1794 


Last 

choa*ii. 


1755 
1769 
1788 
1789 
1794 
1818 


COMPTROLLERS. 


James  Wadsworth, 
Oliver  Wolcott,... 
Ralph  Pomroy, .... 


1786 

1788 


1788 
1789 


178911791 


COMPTROLLERS. 


Andrew  Kingsbury, 

John  Porter, 

Elisha  Colt,+ 


1791 
1794 
1806 


1794 
1806 
1818 


ASSISTANTS.:^ 


JOHN  HAYNES,  Hartford, 

Roger  Ludlow,  Windsor  and  Fairfield, 

GEORGE  WYLLYS,  Hartford, 

EDWARD  HOPKINS,  Hartford, . . ; 

THOMAS  WELLES,  Hartford, 

JOHN  WEBSTER,  Hartford, 

William  Phelps,  Windsor, 

William  Whiting,  Hartford, 

Matthew  Allen,  Hartford, 

William  Hopkins  [?  Hill,  Windsor,] 

John  Mason,  Windsor,  Saybrook,  &  Norwich, 

William  Swaine,  Wethersfield, 

Henry  Wolcott,  Windsor, 

George  Fenwiek,  Saybrook, 

John  Cullick,  Hartford, 

JOHN  WINTHROP,  New  London, 

Henry  Clarke,  Windsor, .... 

John  Talcott,  Hartford, 

Samuel  Wyllys,  Hartford, 

Nathan  Gold,  Fairfield, 

George  Phelps,  Windsor, 

Matthew  Allen,  Windsor, 

Richard  Treat,  Wethersfield, 


Nom. 

EUc. 

1639 

1639 

1639 

1639 

1639 

1639 

1639 

1639 

1639 

1639 

1639 

1639 

1639 

1641 

1641 

1641 

1641 

1641 

1642 

1643 

1643 

1643 

1644 

1644 

1648 

1649 

1651 

1650 

1650 

1654 

1654 

1654 

1654 

1657 

1657 

1658 

1658 

1658 

1658 

1658 

1658 

1653,  died. 

1654,  to  Va. 
1644,  died. 

1657,  toEng. 
1659,  died. 
1659,  to  Mass. 
1643. 

1648. 
(below.) 
1643. 

1671,  died. 
1645. 

1655,  died. 
1649. 

1658,  to  Bost. 
1676,  died. 
1662. 

1659,  died. 
1685,  (below.) 
1658.  (below.) 
1663. 

1668. 
1665. 


*Tlie  Secretaries  of  State,  since  the  adoption  of  the  Constitution,  have  been  the  following,  viz., 
Thomas  Day,  Royal  R.  Hiiinian,  Noah  A.  Phelps,  Daniel  P.  Tyler,  Charles  W.  Bradley,  John  B. 
Robertson,  Roger  H.  Mills,  Hiram  Weed,  John  P.  C.  Mather,  and  Oliver  H.  Perry. 

t  The  successors  of  Mr.  Kingsbury,  in  the  office  of  State  Treasurer,  have  been — Isaac  Spencer, 
Jeremiah  Brown,  Hiram  Rider,  Jabez  L.  White,  Joseph  B.  Gilbert,  Alonzo  W.  Birge,  Henry  D. 
Smith,  Elisha  Stearns,  Daniel  W.  Clark. 

t  The  Comptrollers  since  the  adoption  of  the  Constitution,  have  been — Elisha  Colt,  James  Thomas, 
Elisha  Phelps,  Roger  Huntington,  Gideon  Welles,  William  Field,  Henry  Kilbourn,  Abijah  Carring- 
ton,  Mason  Cleveland,  Abijah  Catlin,  R.  G.  Pinney,  John  Dunham. 

i  List  of  magistrates,  generally  called  Assistants,  who  constituted  the  Upper  House  of  the  Assem- 
bly and  in  early  times  were  the  Supreme  Court  of  the  State.  They  were  the  leading  men  of 
their  times.    The  list  is  copied  from  the  Connecticut  Annual  Register,  for  ]848. 

The  CAPITALS  indicate  the  Governors,  and  the  small  capitals  the  Deputy  or  Lieutenont- 
Governors.    Those  marked  "  died"  deceased  in  office. 


APPENDIX. 


497 


ASSISTANTS. 


John  Wells,  Stratford, 

Alexander  Knowles,  Fairfield, 

Nathan  Gold,  Fairfield, 

Thurston  Rayner,  Wethersfield, 

John  Talcott,  Hartford, 

Daniel  Clark,  Windsor, 

John  Allyn,  Hartford, 

Henry  Wolcott,  Windsor, 

Samuel  Sherman,  Fairfield, 

Thurston  Rayner,  Wethersfield, 

James  Richards,  Hartford, 

WILLIAM  LEET,  Guilford, 

William  Jones.  New  Haven, 

Benjamin  Fenn,  Milford, 

Jasper  Crane,  Branford, 

Henry  Wolcott,  Windsor, 

Samuel  Sherman,  Stratford, 

Daniel  Clark,  Windsor, 

Alexander  Bryant,  Milford, 

James  Bishop,  New  Haven, 

Anthony  Howkins,  Farmington, 

Thomas  Welles,  Ilartford, 

James  Richards,  Hartford, 

John  Nash,  New  Haven, 

ROBERT  TREAT,  Milford, 

Thomas  Topping,  Branford, 

John  Mason,  Norwich, 

Matthew  Gilbert,  New  Haven, 

Andrew  Leet,  Guilford, 

John  Wadsworth,  Farmington, 

Robert  Chapman,  Saybrook, 

James  Fitch,  Norwich, 

Samuel  Mason,  Stonington, 

Benjamin  Newbury,  Windsor, 

Samuel  Talcott,  Wethersfield, 

Giles  Hamlin,  Middletown, 

Samuel  WiUis,  Hartford, 

[Fitz]  John  Winthrop,  New  London,. . 

John  Burr,  Fairfield, 

William  Pitkin,  Hartford, 

Daniel  Wetherell,  New  London, 

Nathaniel  Stanly,  Hartford, 

Caleb  Stanly,  Hartford, 

Moses  Mansfield,  New  Haven, 

JOHN  WINTHROP,  New  Loudon,. 

John  Hamlin,  Middletown, 

Jonathan  Sellick,  Stamford, 

Nathan  Gold,  Fairfield, 

William  Pitkin,  Hartford, 

Joseph  Curtice,  Stratford, 

Samuel  Willis,  Hartford, 

Richard  Christophers,  New  London,. . 

James  Fitch,  Norwich, 

John  Chester,  Wethersfield, 

Josiah  Rossiter,  Guilford, 

Peter  Burr,  Fairfield, 


1658 

1658 

1660. 

1658 

1658 

1659. 

(above) 

1659 

1694, 

died.  ? 

1661 

1662, 

(below.) 

1661 

1662 

1688. 

1661 

1662 

1664, 

resigned 

1661 

1662 

1696, 

died. 

1661 

1662 

1665, 

(below.) 

1664 

1662 

1664, 

(below.) 

1664 

1663 

1664. 

1664 

1666, 

(below.) 

1665 

1665 

1683, 

died.  ? 

1665 

1665 

1698, 

died.  ? 

1665 

1665 

1673. 

1665 

1665 

1668. 

(above) 

1665 

1681. 

(above) 

1665 

1668. 

1666 

1666 

1668. 

1665 

1668 

1679. 

1667 

1668 

1692, 

died. 

1664 

1668 

1674, 

died. 

1665 

1668 

1669. 

(above) 

1669 

1681. 

1670 

1672 

1688, 

died.  ? 

1665 

1673 

1708. 

1670 

1674 

1685. 

1672 

1676 

1677. 

1665 

1677 

1678. 

1677 

1678 

1703. 

1675 

1679 

1690, 

died. 

1669 

1681 

1685. 

1678 

1681 

1698, 

(below.) 

1681 

1683 

1703. 

1 665 

1685 

1690, 

died.  ? 

1669 

1685 

1692, 

died.  ? 

1667 

1685 

1690, 

died.  ? 

(above) 

1689 

1693, 

(below.) 

1689 

1689 

1690, 

(below.) 

1685 

1690 

1695, 

1690 

1690 

1694, 

died. 

1677 

1690 

1710. 

1690 

1690 

1713. 

1692 

1692 

1701. 

1683 

1692 

1704, 

died.  ? 

(above) 

1693 

1707, 

died. 

1693 

1694 

1730. 

1694 

1695 

1701. 

1694 

1695 

1723, 

died.  ? 

1696 

1697 

1723, 

died. 

1696 

1698 

1722. 

(above) 

1698 

1699. 

1694 

1699 

1700, 

(below.) 

(above) 

1700 

1709. 

1685 

1701 

1712. 

1700 

1701 

1711. 

1701 

1703 

1725. 

32 


498 


APPENDIX. 


ASSISTANTS. 

Richard  Christophers,  New  London, 

John  Ailing,  New  Haven, 

GURDON  SALTONSTALL,  New  London, 

John  Haynes,  Hartford, 

Samuel  Eells,  Milford, 

Matthew  Allen,  Windsor, 

JOSEPH  TALCOTT,  Hartford, 

Abraham  Fowler,  Guilford, 

John  Sherman,  Woodbury, 

Roger  Wolcott,  Windsor, 

JONATHAN  LAW,  Milford, 

James  Wadsworth,  Durham, 

ROGER  WOLCOTT,  Windsor, 

John  Hall,  Wallingford, 

Christopher  Christophers,  New  London, 

Hezekiah  Brainard,  Had  dam, 

John  Hooker,  Farmington, 

John  Wakeman,  Fairfield, 

Nathaniel  Stanly,  Hartford, 

Joseph  Whiting,  New  Haven, 

Ozias  Pitkin,  Hartford, 

Timothy  Pierce,  Plainfield, 

John  Burr,  Fairfield, 

Samuel  Lynde,  Saybrook, 

Edmund  Lewis,  Stratford, , 

WILLIAM  PITKIN,  Hartford, , 

Thomas  Fitch,  Norwalk, 

Roger  Newton,  Milford, , 

Ebenezer  SiUiman,  Fairfield, 

THOMAS  FITCPI,  Norwalk, 

Jonathan  Trumbull,  Lebanon, 

Hezekiah  Huntington,  Norwich 

John  Bulkley,  Colchester, 

Andrew  Burr,  Fairfield, 

Roger  Newton,  Milford, 

John  Chester,  Wethersfield, 

Hezekiah  Huntington,  Norwich, 

Gurdon  Saltonstall,  New  London, 

Thomas  Welles,  Glastenbury, 

Benjamin  Hall,  Wallingford, 

Phineas  Lyman,  Suffield, 

JONATHAN  TRUMBULL,  Lebanon,... 

Roger  Wolcott,  Windsor, 

Jonathan  Huntington,  Windham, 

Daniel  Edwards,  Hartford 

Jabez  Hamlin,  Middletown, 

MATTHEW  GRISWOLD,  Lyme, 

Shubael  Conant,  Mansfield, 

Elisha  Shelden,  Litchfield, 

Eliphalet  Dyer,  Windham, 

Jabez  Huntington,  Windham 

William  Pitkin,  East  Hartford, 

Roger  Sherman,  New  Haven, 

Robert  Walker,  Stratford, 

Abraham  Davenport,  Stamford, 

Wra.  Samuel  Johnson,  Stratford, 


(above) 

1703 

not  noin. 

1696 
1683 
1706 
1709 
1705 
1711 
1712 
1710 
1716 

(above) 
1719 
1718 
1720 
1709 
1715 
1723 
1722 
1725 
1725 
1724 
1729 
1729 
1731 
1730 
1729 
1736 

(above) 
1739 
1739 
1735 
1734 

(above) 
1741 

(above) 
1746 
1749 
1749 
1751 

(above) 
1747 
1751 
1751 
1754 
1755 
1754 
1758 
1758 
1761 
1763 
1761 
1760 
1764 
1765 


1703 
1704 
L707 
[708 
1709 
1710 
1711 
1712 
1713 
1714 
1717 
1718 
1720 
L722 
L723 
1723 
1723 
1724 
1725 
L725 
(27 
L728 
1729 
L730 
1730 
L734 
1734 
1736 
1739 
L740 
1740 
1740 
743 
L746 
L742 
L747 
L748 
L749 
L751 
1751 
1752 
1754 
1754 
L754 
1755 
758 
r59 
160 
1762 
1762 
1764 
1766 
766 
766 
1766 
1766 


1723. 
1717. 

1724,  died. 
1714. 

1740,  died.  ? 
1734. 

1741,  died. 
1720. 
1723. 

1718,  (below. j 

1750,  died. 
1752. 
1754. 
1730. 
1729. 

1728*,  died.  ? 
1734. 
1727. 
1749. 
1746. 
1747. 
1748. 
1740. 

1754,  died. 
1739. 

1769J  died. 
1736,  (below.) 
1740,  (below.) 
1766. 

1766. 

1751,  (below.) 
1743,  (below.) 
1753,  died. 
1764. 

1762. 

1766. 

1773. 

1754. 

1761. 

1766. 

1759. 

1784    declined. 

1760,  died. 

1758. 

1765,  died. 

1766,  (below.) 
1786. 

1775,  died. 
1779,  died. 

1784,  died.  ? 
1781,  died.  ? 

1785,  resigned. 
1785,  resigned. 
1772,  died. 
1784. 

1776,  (below.) 


APPENDIX. 


499 


ASSISTANTS. 


Joseph  Spencer,  East  Haddam, 

Zebulon  West,  Tolland, 

OLIVER  WOLCOTT,  Litchfield, 

Jabez  Hamlin,  Middletowu, 

James  A.  Hillhouse,  New  Haven, 

SAMUEL  HUNTINGTON,  Norwich, 

Richard  Law,  New  London, 

William  Williams,  Lebanon, 

Titus  Hosmer,  Middletown, 

Oliver  Ellsworth,  Windsor, (below,) 

Joseph  Spencer,  East  Haddam, 

Adams,  Andi-ew,  Litchfield, 

Benjamin  Huntington,  Norwich, 

Joseph  Piatt  Cooke,  Danbury, 

Stephen  Mix  Mitchell,  Wethersfield, 

William  Williams,  Lebanon, 

William  Hillhouse,  New  London, 

Erastus  Wolcott,  East  Windsor, 

JOHN  TREADWELL,  Farmington, 

Jonathan  Sturges,  Fairfield, 

James  Wadsworth,  Durham, 

Wm.  Samuel  Johnson,  Stratford, 

John  Chester,  Wethersfield, 

James  Hillhouse,  New  Haven, 

Jedediah  Strong,  Litchfield, 

Jesse  Root,  Coventry, 

James  Davenport,  Stamford, 

Roger  Newberry,  Windsor, 

Heman  Swift,  Cornwall, 

John  Chandler,  Newtown, 

Benjamin  Huntington,  Norwich, 

Amasa  Learned,  New  London, 

Jonathan  Ingersoll,  New  Haven, 

Tapping  Reeve,  Litchfield, 

Asher  Miller,  Middletown, 

Thomas  Grosvenor,  Pomfret, 

Thomas  Seymour,  Hartford, 

Aaron  Austin,  New  Hartford, 

Jeremiah  Wadsworth,  Hartford, 

JONATHAN  TRUMBULL,  Lebanon, 

David  Daggett,  New  Haven, 

Jonathan  Brace,  Hartford, 

Zephaniah  Swift,  Windham, 

Nathaniel  Smith,  Woodbui'y, 

John  Allen,  Litchfield, 

Zephaniah  Swift,  Windham, 

Oliver  Ellsworth,  Windsor, 

Jonathan  Brace,  Hartford, 

Chauncey  Goodrich,  Hartford, 

John  Chester,  Wethersfield, 

William  Edmund,  Newtown, 

Elizur  Goodrich,  New  Haven, 

Matthew  Griswold,  Lyme, 

Stephen  T.  Hosmer,  Middletown, 

Asher  Miller,  Middletown, 

Henry  Champion,  Colchester, 


1765 
1766 
1768 

(above) 
1771 
1773 
1774 
1774 
1775 
1778 

(above) 
1779 
1779 
1783 
1783 

(above) 
1783 
1772 
1783 
1784 
1776 

(above) 
1786 
1785 
1786 
1780 
1789 
1789 
1789 
1789 

(above) 
1790 
1790 
1789 
1791 
1789 
1791 
1792 
1787 
1788 
1794 
1797 
1791 
1798 
1794 

(above) 

(above) 

(above) 
1793 

(above) 
1793 
1801 
1802 
1798 

(above) 
1803 


1766 
1770 
1771 
1773 
1773 
1775 
1776 
1776 
1778 
1780 
1779 
1781 
1781 
1784 
1784 
1784 
1785 
1785 
1785 
1785 
1785 
1786 
1788 
1789 
1789 
1789 
1790 
1790 
1790 
1790 
1791 
1791 
1792 
1792 
1793 
1793 
1793 
1794 
1795 
1796 
1797 
1798 
1799 
1799 
1800 
1801 
1802 
1802 
1902 
1803 
1803 
1803 
1805 
1805 
1806 
1806 


1778 

1771 

1798 

1785 

1775 

1796 

1784 

1780: 

1780 

1785 

1789 

1790 

1790 

1803 

1793 

1803 

1809 

1790 

1811 

17 

1788 

1789 

1792, 

1791 

1791 

1789 

1797 

1809 

1802 

1795 

1793 

1792 

1798, 

1793: 

1793 

1802 

1803 

1818 

1801 

1809 

1814 

1799 

1800 

1805, 

1806 

1801 

1808 

1819 

1808 

1809 

1806 

1818, 

1818, 

1815 

1817 

1818, 


(below.) 


Judge, 
(below.) 
died. 
Judge. 


(below.) 


(below.) 


Judge, 
died. 


died. 
Judge. 

(below.) 

Judge. 


died. 
Sen.  C. 
(below,) 
(below.) 
Judge. 

Judge. 


(below.) 
Judge. 

Judge. 


500 


APPENDIX. 


ASSISTANTS. 


Calvin  Goddard,  Norwich, 

Isaac  Beers,  New  Haven, 

John  Cotton  Smith,  Sharon, 

[Judson  Canfield,  Sharon, 

Theodore  Dwight,  Hartford, 

ROGER  GRISWOLD,  Lyme, 

Frederick  Woleott,  Litchfield, 

JOHN  COTTON  SMITH,  Sharon,. 

Chauncey  Goodrich,  Hartford, 

Roger  M.  Sherman,  Fairfield, 

Samuel  W.  Johnson,  Stratford, 

Noah  B.  Benedict,  Woodbury, 

William  Perkins,  Ashford, 

Samuel  B.  Sherwood,  Fairfield, 

Jonathan  Ingehsoll,  New  Haven,. . 

Asa  Chapman,  Newtown, 

Elias  Perkins,  New  London, 

OLIVER  WOLCOTT,  Litchfield, . . . . 

William  Bristol,  New  Haven, 

Elijah  Boardmau,  New  Milford, 

David  Tomlinson,  Oxford, 

Sylvester  Wells,  Hartford, 

JOHN  S.  PETERS,  Hebron, 

James  Lanman,  Norwich, 

Enoch  Burrows,  Stonington, 

Peter  Webb,  Guilford,  ? 


Nom. 

Elec. 
1808 

1806 

1804 

1808 

1807 

1809 

1804 

1809 

1808 

1809 

1793 

1809 

1808 

1810 

(above) 

1811 

(above) 

1813 

1808 

1814 

1810 

1815 

1810 

1816 

1810 

1816 

1815 

1816 

(above) 

1816 

1809 

1817 

1813 

1817 

1817 

1817 

1818 

1817 

1818 

1817 

1818 

1817 

1818 

1817 

1818 

1817 

1818 

1817 

1818 

1817 

1818 

1815,  Judge. 
1809. 

1810,  Judge. 
1815. 
1816. 

1812,  died. 
1819. 
1817. 

1815,  died. 
1818. 
1818. 
1818. 
1818. 
1817. 
1819. 
1819. 
1819. 
1819. 
1819. 
1819. 
1819. 
1819. 
1819. 
1819. 
1819. 
I  1819. 


ROLL  OF  DEPUTIES 

TO  THE  GENEEAL  COURT  OE  CONNECTICUT 

FROM    APRIL    1640,    TO    THE    UNION    WITH    NEW   HAVEN    COLONY,    APRIL    1665. 


NAMES    OF    DEPUTIES. 


Mr.  Allyn, 

Lieut.  John  Allyn,... 

Thomas  Allyn, 

Ensign  James  Avery,. 


Andrew  Bacon, 

Mr.  John  Banks,. . .  . 

Joshua  Barnes, 

William  Beardsley,. .. 
Mr.  Jamis  Bishop,. . . 
Tlionias  Birchard,... 
Samuel  Boardman,. . . 
Mr.  Jolm  Bissell,. . . . 
Lieut.  James  Boozey,. 
John  ])ronson, 


1648 
1661 
1656 
1659 

1642 
1651 
1663 
1645 
1665 
1650 
1057 
1648 
1640 
1651 


NAMES    OF   DEPUTIES. 


Mr.  Jonathan  Brewster,... 

John  Burr, 

Mr.  Jehu  Burr, 

Lieut.  John  Budd, 

Richard  Butler, 

Mr.  Matthew  Canfield, 

Nath.  Canfield, 

Hugh  Caulkins, 

Mr.  Robert  Chapman, 

Thomas  Chapman, 

Mr.  Chaplin, 

Mr.  William  Chesebrough, 

William  Cheeney, 

Mr.  George  Clark, 


First 

No. 

elected . 

Bes. 

1650 

7 

1641 

1 

1645 

7 

1664 

1 

1656 

8 

1654 

12 

1655 

1 

1652 

11 

1652 

17 

1652 

2 

1642 

2 

1653 

5 

1660 

5 

1665 

1 

APPENDIX. 


501 


NAMES    OF    DEPUTIES. 

Mr.  Daniel  Clark, 

Henry  Clai'k, 

Mr.  John  Clark, 

Mr.  Clarke, 

John  Cooper, 

Thomas  Coleman, 

Sergt.  William  Coruvvell, 

Thomas  Cook, 

Richard  Crabb, 

Mr.  Culliek, 

John  Cowles, 

Mr.  John  Deming, 

Capt.  Denison, 

Nathaniel  Dickerson,. . . 

Samuel  Drake, 

John  Edwards, 

Nath.Ely, 

Mr.  Thomas  Fairchild,. . 

Mr.  Joseph  Fitch, 

Nathaniel  Foot, 

Thomas  Ford, 

John  Fowler, 

Lieut.  Walter  Fyler, 

Mr.  William  Gaylord,... 

George  Graves, 

William  Goodrich, 

John  Gregory, 

Francis  Griswold, 

Edward  Griswold, 

Matthew  Griswold, 

Nath.  Griswold, 

Philip  Graves, 

Henry  Gray, 

Samuel  Hale, 

John  Hall,  Jr., 

Samuel  Hall, , . 

Mr.  Hall, 

Thomas  Halsey,  Jr., 

Joseph  Hawley, 

John  Hart, 

Stephen  Hart, 

Ed.  Harvey, 

Mr.  Hill, 

Wilham  Hill, 

Mr.  John  Hollister, 

Mr.  Hosford, 

Mr.  Anthony  Hawkins,. . 

Mr.  John  Howell, 

Walter  Hoyt, 

George  Hubbard, 

Mr.  Cornelius  Hull, 

Mr.  George  Hull, 


First 

No.  1 

elected. 

ses. 

« 



1653 

5 

1642 

2 

1649 

21 

1641 

9 

1665 

1 

1651 

9 

1654 

3 

1665 

1 

1640 

2 

1644 

3 

1653 

2 

1646 

19 

1653 

3 

1646 

19 

1662 

1 

1643 

2 

1656 

1 

1646 

11 

1654 

10 

1641 

2 

1640 

4 

1665 

1 

1661 

3 

1640 

36 

1656 

4 

1660 

3 

1659 

3 

1664 

1 

1656 

9 

1649 

3 

1650 

1 

1642 

14 

1642 

2 

1656 

3 

1653 

1 

1660 

1 

1661 

1 

1664 

1 

1658 

1 

1659 

2 

1646 

13 

1646 

1 

1641 

10 

1651 

3 

1644 

14 

1652 

1 

1657 

13 

1662 

2 

1658 

3 

1640 

3 

1656 

9 

1649 

1 

NAMES    OF    DEPUTIES. 

Josias  Hull, 

Mr.  Hull, 

Thomas  Hunt, 

John  Hurd, 

John  Jessop, 

Thomas  Judd, 

Ensign  Joseph  Judson, . . 

William  Kenney, 

John  Ketchum, 

Sergt.  John  Kilbourn,. . . 

John  Lattimer, 

Cary  Latham, 

Thomas  Leffingwell, 

Mr.  Lord, 

Matthew  Marvin, 

Captain  Mason, 

Good.  Meads, 

Mr.  Thomas  Minor, 

Thomas  Moreliouse, 

Isaac  Moore, 

Mr.  John  Moore, 

James  Morgan, 

Joseph  Mygatt, 

Capt.  Benjamin  Newbery, 

Thomas  Newton, 

Mr.  Isaac  Nichols, 

Sergt.  John  Nott, 

Lieut.  Richard  Olmsted,.. 

William  Parker, 

Mr.  Parks, 

Mr.  Phelps, 

Mr.  Plumb, 

John  Pratt, 

Mr.  Porter, 

Mr.  Thomas  Pell, 

Thomas  Rayner, 

Nath.  Richards, 

John  Robbins, 

Mr.  Robbins, 

Mr.  James  Rogers, 

Robert  Rose, 

Mr.  Rossiter, 

Robert  Royce 

Captain  Seely, 

Samuel  Sherman, 

Thomas  Sherrat, 

Thomas  Sherwood 


1659 
1640 
1664 
1649 

1664 
1646 
1658 

1662 
1664 
1660 

1654 
1664 
1662 
1656 

1654 
1641 
1653 
16.50 
16.53 
1657 
16.53 
1857 
1656 

1656 
1645 
1662 
1662 

1653 

1652 
1642 
1645 
1642 
1641 
1646 
1664 

1640 
1658 
1643 
1656 
1661 
1641 
1643 
1661 
1664 
1660 
1649 
1645 


4 

15 

1 

4 

1 

14 

9 

1 
1 
4 


502 


APPENDIX. 


NAMES    OF   DEPUTIES. 


William  Smith, 

Samnel  Smith, 

Mr.  Speucer, 

Sergt.  John  Stanley,. .. 

Ed.  Stebbing, 

Thomas  Staunton, 

Thomas  Staples, 

John  Sticklin, 

Mr.  Steele, 

Samuel  Stocking, 

Mr.  Stoughton, 

Mr.  Swayne, 

Lieut.  Samuel  Swayne, . 


Mr.  Taintor, 

Mr.  Talcott, 

John  Tinker, 

Daniel Titterton,. . . 
Thomas  Thomson,. 
Thomas  Thornton,. 
Thomas  Ti'acy, . . . . 

Mr.  Treat, 

Michael  Try, 


First 

No. 

elected. 

ses. 

1652 

4 

1641 

21 

1640 

1 

1659 

4 

1640 

16 

1651 

1 

1649 

3 

1641 

1 

1640 

34 

1658 

3 

1640 

8 

1641 

3 

1665 

1 

1646 

2 

1640 

30 

1660 

2 

1646 

4 

1650 

1 

1651 

1 

1662 
1644 

23 
5 

1657 

1 

NAMES    OF    DEPUTIES. 

Mr.  William  Wadsworth, . 

Ens.  William  Waller, 

Mr.  Andrew  Ward, 

Nath.  Ward, 

Robert  Warner, 

Robert  Webster, 

Richard  Webb, 

John  Welles, 

Mr.  Samuel  Wells, 

Mr.  Thomas  Wells, 

John  Wheeler, 

Mr.  Westwood, 

Nathaniel  White, 

Thomas  Whitmore, 

William  Wilcoxson, 

Anthony  Wilson, 

David  Wilton, 

Andrew  Winard, , 

Barnabas  Wines, 

Mr.  Henry  Wolcott, 

John  Wilford,* 

filr.  Richard  Woodhull, . . 


1652 
1663 
1648 
1656 
1660 
1653 
1655 
1656 
1657 
1662 
1657 
1642 
1659 
16.54 
1646 
1646 
1646 
1653 
1664 
1655 
1664 
1664 


CATALOGUE 

OF  THE  COSGEEGATIO^AL  CLEEGTMEN  IN  CONNECTICUT 
AND  NEW  HAYEN  COLONIES, 

DOWN  TO  1665,  VIZ. 


NAMES. 


Thomas  Hooker,  Hartford, 
Samuel  Stone,  Hartford,. . . 
Ephraim  Hewett,  Windsor, 
Sam'l  Hooker,  Farmington, 
John  Davenport,N.  Haven, 
Wm.  Hook,  New  Haven, 
Nicholas  Street,  N.  Haven, 
Peter  Prudden,  Milford, . 
Roger  Newton,  Milford, 
Henry  Whitfield,  Guilford, 


From* 

To. 

1633 

1647 

1633 

1663 

16.39 

1644 

1661 

1697 

1639 

1668 

1644 

1656 

1659 

1674 

1640 

1656 

1660 

1683 

1639 

1650 

John  Higginsou,  Guilford,. 
Joseph  Elliott,  Guilford, . . 
Samuel  Russell,  Branford,. 
Rd.  Blynman,  N.  London,. 
N.  Russell,  Middietown. 
Henry  Smith,  W^ethersfield 
Jona.  Russell,  " 
Joseph  Haynes,  Hartford. 

Samuel  Whiting, 

Thos.  l^uekingham,Sayb'k 


From.       To. 


1650 
1660 
1644 
1650 
1658 
1641 
1648 


1660 


1659 

1665 
1658 
1713 
1648 

1679 


*  From  Mny,  1G37,  to  April,  1G40,  the  popular  branch  of  the  General  Court  or  General 
Asscmhiy,  ns  it  was  afterwards  called,  was  composed  of  "  Committees."  The  following  gentle- 
men served  in  that  capacity  between  these  dates,  viz.  :-Mr.  Whiting,  Mr.  Webster,  Mr.  Williams, 
Mr.  Hull,  V.T.  Chaplin,  Mr.  Talcott,  Mr.  Ilosford,  Mr.  Mitchell,  Mr.  Sherman,  Capt.  Mason,  j\Ir. 
Hopkins,' Mr.  Steel,  Mr.  Ford,  Thomas  Marshall,  Mr.  Andrew  Ward,  George  Hubbard,  John  Gibbs, 
Thurston  Rayner,  Mr.  Moxam,  Mr.  Burr,  Mr.  Spencer,  John  Pratt,  Edward  Stebbing,  Mr.  Gaylord, 
Mr.  Ilcnry  Wolcott,  Mr.  Stoughton,  James  Boosey,  Richard  Crabb,  l\Ir.  Porter,  Mr.  Tappan,  and 
Mr.  Hill.     Many  of  the  deputies  above  named,  were  frequently  elected  after  the  union. 


APPENDIX 


503 


NAMES. 

From. 

1661 
1660 

1665 

To. 

1666 
1694 

1692 
1670 

NAMES. 

From. 

1641 
1644 
1640 
,1665 
1654 

To. 

1644 
1694 
1665 
1722 

Gershom  Bulkley,  "   .... 
James  Fitch,  Norwich,. . . 

Mr.  Jones,  Fairfield, 

Samuel  Wakeman,  do 

Zechariali  Walker  jStratford 

Richard  Denton,  Stamfords 
John  Bishop,  Stamford,. . . 
Adam  Blackman,  Stratford, 
Israel  Chauncey,  Stratford, 
Thomas  Hanford,  Norwalk, 

MASTEES. 


List  of  gentlemen  who  are  designated  upon  the  Colonial  Records  of  Connecticut, 
with  the  prefix  of  Master  (or  "  Mr.")  previous  to  the  union  of  that  colony  with 
New  Haven,  1665 — including  those  who  bore  military  titles  of  a  nearly  equal 
rank,  viz : 


Mr. 
Mr. 
Mr. 
Mr. 
Mr. 
Mr. 
Mr. 
Mr. 
Mr. 
Mr. 
Mr. 
Mr. 
Mr. 
Mr. 
Mr. 
Mr. 
Mr. 
Mr. 
Mr. 
Mr. 
Mr. 
Mr. 
Mr. 
Mr. 
Mr. 
Mr. 
Mr. 
Mr. 


Ludlow, 

John  Steele, 

Wm.  Swayne, . . . . 
Wm.  Westwood, . . 
Andrew  Ward, . . . 
Wm.  Phelps,. . . ., 
W^m.  Pyncheon, . . 
Thomas  Allen,. . . 
John  Oldham, . . . . 

John  Plumb, 

Francis  Stiles, . . . . 

Seely, 

Strickland, 

Mitchell, , 

Clement  Chaplin,, 
Thomas  Welles, . . 
William  Whiting,. 
John  Webster, . . . 

Williams, 

Hull, 

Talcott, 

John  Sherman,. . . 

Hosford, 

John  Mason, 

John  Haynes, . . . . 

Smith, , 

Edward  Hopkins,. 
Thomas  Ford, . . . . 


Year. 


1636 

1636 
1636 
1636 
1636 
1636 
1636 
1636 
1636 
16.36 
1636 
1636 
1636 
1636 
1536 
1637 
1637 
1637 
1637 
1637 
1637 
1637 
1637 
1637 
1637 
1638 
1638 
1638 


Mr. 
Mr. 
Mr. 
Mr. 
Mr. 
Mr. 
Mr. 
Mr. 
Rlr. 
Mr. 
Mr. 
Mr. 
Mr. 
Mr. 
Mr. 
Mr. 
Mr. 
Mr. 
Mr. 
Mr. 
Mr. 
Mr. 
Mr. 
Mr. 
Mr. 
Mr. 
Mr. 
Mr. 


Holmes, 

Moxam, 

Burr, 

Stephen  Terry, . . . 
Samuel  Stone, .... 
William  Goodwin, 
George  Wyllys, . . 
W^illiam  Gaylord, . 

Spencer, , 

Stoughton, 

Henry  Wolcott, . . 

Moore, 

Weed, 

Skinner, 

Porter, 

Tappan, 

Hill, 

Fenwick, 

Hooker, 

John  Woodcock,. 

Prudden, 

Matthew  Allen,. . 
Ephraira  Hewett, . 
Arthur  Williams,. 

Parks, 

Moody, 

Edward  Hopkins, . 
Rossiter 


Year. 


1638 
1638 
1638 
1638 
1638 
1638 
1639 
1639 
1639 
1639 
1639 
1639 
1639 
1639 
1639 
1639 
1639 
1639 
1639 
1639 
1639 
1639 
1640 
1640 
1640 
1640 
1640 
1640 


*  These  names  are  gathered  mainly  from  J.  Hammond  Trumbull's  "  Colonial  Records."  It  will  be 
observed  that  many  eminent  names  in  our  Colonial  history,  are  not  found  in  the  roll  here  given. 
The  reasons  are  obvious.  The  period  covers  only  the  first  thirty  years  of  our  existence  as  a  colony. 
Many  gentlemen  who  were  in  Connecticut  during  that  time,  afterwards  became  prominent ;  others 
did  not  arrive  from  England  until  a  later  date.  I  have  not  been  able  to  obtain  anything  like  a  com- 
plete list  of  those  who  bore  this  title  in  New  Haven  Colony.  A  very  few  only  of  the  names  here 
given,  belonged  to  other  jurisdictions. 


504 


APPENDIX. 


Mr.  Robert  Saltonstall, . . 

Mr.  Deynton, 

Mr.  Clark, 

Mr.  Coggenj 

Mr.  Fowler, 

Mr.  Astwood, 

Mr.  Tapp, 

.  Mr.  PhcEnix, 

Mr.  Cullick, 

Mr.  Tyler 

Mr.  Eidridge, 

Mr.  Chester, 

Mr.  Treat, 

Mr.  Robbins, 

Mr.  Branker, 

Mr,  John  Holliste!-, 

Mr.  Andrews, 

Mr.  Gilbert, 

Mr.  Graves, 

Mr.  Cosmore, 

Mr.  Taintor, 

Mr.  Boozey, 

Mr.  Howell, 

Mr.  Pinney, 

Mr.  Olcott, 

Mr.  Blackleach, , 

Mr.  Blackman, 

Mr.  Jonathan  Brewster,. 

Mr.  Bllnman, 

Mr.  Augustine, 

Mr.  Wm.  Lewis, 

Mr.  Wheeler, 

Mr.  John  Steele,  Jr., 

Mr.  Thomas  Barnes, . . .  . 
Mr.  Richard  Olmsted, . . . 
Mr.  Daniel  Clark,...'... 

Mr.  Denison, 

Mr.  Cook, 

Mr.  Samuel  Wyllys, 

Mr.  Samuel  Mayo, 

Mr.  Bryant, 

Mr.  Fitch, 

Mr.  John  Whiting, 

Mr.  Wm.  Whiting,  Jr., . . 

Mr.  Baxter, 

Mr.  John  Russell, 

Mr.  Ogden, 

Mr.  Benjamin  Newbury,. 

Mr.  Nathan  Gold, 

Mr.  Wareham, 

Mr.  Thomas  Pell, 

Mr.  Lord, 

Mr.  Kiibourn, 

Mr.  John  Bctts, 

Mr.  Diekerson, 

Mr.  Nott 


Year. 


1641 

1641 
1641 
1641 
1641 
1641 
1641 
1642 
1642 
1642 
1642 
1642 
1642 
1643 
1643 
1643 
1644 
1646 
1646 
1647 
1647 
1647 
1647 
1648 
1648 
1649 
1649 
1650 
1651 
1651 
1651 
1651 
1651 
1651 
1651 
1653 
1653 
1653 
1654 
1654 
1654 
1654 
1654 
1654 
1654 
1654 
1656 
1656 
1656 
1656 
1656 
]  656 
1657 
1657 
1657 
1657 


Mr. 

Mr. 

Mr. 

Mr. 

Mr. 

Mr. 

Mr. 

Mr. 

Mr. 

Mr. 

Mr. 

Mr. 

Mr. 

Mr. 

Mr. 

Mr. 

Mr. 

Mr. 

Mr. 

Mr. 

Mr. 

Mr. 

Mr. 

Mr. 

Mr. 

Mr. 

Mr. 

Mr. 

Mr. 

Mr. 

Mr. 
Mr. 
Mr. 
Mr. 
Mr. 
Mr. 
Mr. 
Mr. 
Mr. 
Mr. 
Mr. 
Mr. 
Mr. 
Mr. 
Mr. 
Mr. 
Mr. 
Mr. 
Mr. 
Mr. 
Mr. 
Mr. 
Mr. 
Mr. 
Mr. 
Mr. 


NAMES. 

John  Wells, 

Alexander  Knowles, 

Baker, 

Mulford, 

Cobbett, 

Danforth, 

Brown, 

Norton, 

Matthew  Canfield,.. 

Walter  Hoy t, 

Samuel  Wells, 

Thomas  Fairchild,.. 

Wilton, 

Barrett, 

Josiah  Stanborough, 

Bruen, 

John  Cotton, 

Varlet, 

Stow, 

Rayner, 

Bond, 

Baker, 

Hall, 

Richard  Woodhull, . 
Thomas  Pierce, .... 

Halsey, 

Palms, 

Thomas  Bull, 

Joseph  Willard,. . .  . 

Wm.  Pratt, 

Wm.  Waller, 

Wm.  Bushnell, 

Reynold  Marvin, ... 

Jonas  Wood 

Wads  worth, 

Thomson, 

Joseph  Playnes, 

James  Rogers, 

Samuel  Smith, 

James  Avery, 

John  Young, 

Glover, 

Elton, 

Tucker, 

William  Pitkin, 

Samuel  Talcott, 

Rickball, 

Sylvester, 

Gardiner, 

Tyler, 

Anthony  Ilowkins, . . 
Robert  Chapman,. . . 

Burr, 

Thomas  Minor, 

Jones, 

Samuel  Sherman, ... 


Year. 
1658 

1658 

1658 

1658 

1658 

1658 

1658 

1658 

1659 

1659 

1659 

1659 

1659 

1659 

1659 

1660 

1660 

1680 

1660 

1660 

1661 

1661 

1661 

1661 

1661 

1661 

1661 

1661 

1661 

1661 

1661 

1661 

1661 

1662 

1662 

1662 

1662 

1662 

1662 

1662 

1662 

1662 

1662 

1662 

1662 

1662 

1662 

1662 

1662 

1663 

1663 

1663 

1663 

1663 

1663 

1663 


APPENDIX. 


505 


NAMES. 

Year. 

1663 
1663 
1663 
1663 
1663 
1663 
1663 
1663 
1663 
1663 
1663 
1664 
1664 
1664 
1664 
1664 
1664 
1664 
1664 

NAMES. 

Year. 

1664 
1664 
1664 
1664 
1664 
1664 
1664 
1664 
1664 
1664 
1664 
1664 
1664 
1664 
1664 
1664 
1664 
1664 
1664 

Mr.  Wood, 

Mr.  Barton, 

Mr.  Thomas  Benedict, 

Mr  Richard  Mills    

Mr.  Richard  Betts, 

Mr  Rifhard  Smith  Sr. 

Mr.  William  Noble, 

Mr.  William  Hallett, 

Mr  Edw.  Hutchinson, 

Mr.  James  Hubbard, 

Mr.  William  Wilkins,   

Mr.  James  Richards, 

Mr.  Fordham, 

Mr.  Richard  Smith,  Jr 

Mr   Bourne, 

Mr  Tracy, 

Mr.  Walker, 

Mr.  Loveridge, 

Mr.  Hagborn, 

Mr.  Douglass, 

Mr.  John  Moore, 

Mr  John  Scott, 

Mr  Bissell, 

Mr  John  Hicks, 

Mr  Robert  Coe, 

Mr.  John  Stanley, 

Mr.  Cornelius  Hull, 

Mr.  John  Banks, 

Mr  William  Clark 

Mr.  Robert  Treat 

FAMILY  NAMES 


OF  SOITE  OF  THE  PLANTERS  OF  THE  COLONIES  OF  CONNECTICUT 
AND  NEW  HAYEN, 

PREVIOUS    TO    THEIR    UMON    IN    1665. 


Abbe, 

Atkinson, 

Barnes, 

Belden, 

Abbott, 

Atwater, 

Barnum, 

Bell, 

Abel, 

Atwood, 

Barrett, 

Bellingham 

Abernethy, 

Austin, 

Barrows, 

Beaumont, 

Aekley, 

Avery, 

Bartlett, 

Bement, 

Adams, 

.Axtell, 

Bateman, 

Benedict, 

Addis, 

Ayres, 

Bates, 

Benham, 

Adgate, 

Bascomb, 

Benjamin, 

Adkins, 

Backus, 

Bassett, 

Bennett, 

Aiken, 

Bacon, 

Baxter, 

Benton, 

Alcock, 

Bailey, 

Beach, 

Benson, 

Alexander, 

Baker, 

Beaeham, 

Betts, 

Allen, 

Baldvs'in, 

Beale, 

Bidwell, 

Alsop, 

Bamster, 

Beard, 

Bigelow, 

Alvord, 

Bancroft, 

Beardslev, 

Birchard, 

Andrews, 

Banks, 

Beaucamp, 

Biggs, 

Andrus, 

Barber, 

Beebe, 

Billings, 

Armstrong, 

Barden, 

Beeeher, 

Bingham, 

Arnold, 

Barker, 

Beers, 

Bird, 

Ashley, 

Bailey, 

Beckley, 

Birdseye, 

Astwood, 

Barlow, 

Beckwith, 

Bn'ge, 

Atkins, 

Barnard, 

Belcher, 

Bishop, 

506 


APPENDIX. 


Bissell, 

Buckingham, 

Clough, 

Dummer, 

Buekland, 

Buel, 

Carbitt, 

Blachford, 

Bulkley, 

Cadman, 

East, 

Blaekleach, 

Bull, 

Cadner, 

Eaton, 

Blackman, 

Bunce, 

Coe, 

Edwards, 

Blakesley, 

Bunnell, 

Cogswell, 

Edmunds, 

Blmman, 

Burden, 

Coit, 

Eggleston, 

Bliss, 

Burgess, 

Cole, 

Elderkin, 

Bloomer, 

Burnham, 

Cone, 

Eldred, 

Blomfield, 

Burroughs, 

Constable, 

Eldridge, 

Boardman, 

Burr, 

Cowles, 

Ellis, 

Bolles, 

Barrett, 

Colfaxe, 

Ellison, 

Boltwood, 

Burwell, 

Coleman, 

Elliott, 

Bolt, 

Bush, 

Collier, 

Elmore, 

Bond, 

Bushnell, 

Collins, 

Elsing, 

Boosy, 

Butler, 

Coltman, 

Ellsworth, 

Bordain, 

Butterfield, 

Colt, 

Elton, 

Booth, 

Colton, 

Ely, 

Bostwick, 

CabeU, 

Comstock, 

Evei-tB, 

Boswell, 

Cadwell, 

Conklin, 

Evans, 

Botsford, 

Calder, 

Coker, 

Bowe, 

Camp, 

Cooke, 

Fairchild, 

Bowers, 

Canfield, 

Cooley, 

Farrand, 

Boucjhton, 

Carr, 

Cooper, 

Fellowes, 

Boyd, 

Carrington, 

Cornelius, 

Fenn, 

Boyes, 

Carrier, 

Cornwell, 

Fenner, 

Boykin, 

Carter, 

Gary, 

Fenwick, 

Brackett, 

Case, 

Cosmore, 

Ferman, 

Bratfield, 

Castle, 

Colton, 

Ferris, 

Brace, 

Catlin, 

Crane, 

Filley, 

Brawley, 

Cattell, 

Craddock, 

Finch, 

Bradley, 

Caulkins, 

Cross, 

Fish, 

Bradstreet, 

Chalker, 

Crowell, 

Fisher, 

Brainerd, 

Chalkwell, 

Crumb, 

Fitch, 

Bramfield, 

Champion, 

Cullick, 

Fletcher, 

Branker, 

Chauncey, 

Curtis, 

Foote, 

Brattle, 

Chappell, 

Curwin 

Ford, 

Breed, 

Chapin, 

Foster, 

Brewster, 

Chaplin, 

Daniels, 

Fowler, 

Bruen, 

Chapman, 

Davenport, 

Franklin, 

Bridgeman, 

Charles, 

Davis, 

Frost, 

Brigden, 

Char  well. 

Davies, 

Fugill, 

Briggs, 

Chalfield, 

Dawes, 

Freeman, 

Brinsmade, 

Chatterton, 

Day, 

Fuller, 

Bristol, 

Chidsey, 

Deming, 

Fyler, 

Brockett, 

Cheeney, 

Denison, 

Brodwell, 

Chapperfield, 

Denslow 

Gager, 

Broekway, 

Cherry, 

Desborough, 

Gaines, 

Bronson, 

Cheener, 

Dewey, 

Gay  lord. 

Brooke, 

Chester, 

Dibble, 

Gal  pin. 

Brooks, 

Chesoborough, 

Dickinson, 

Gardner, 

Ijrown, 

Chieliester," 

Douglass 

Garrett, 

Browning, 

Chittonden, 

Dowd, 

Gibbons, 

Brundish, 

Christophers, 

Drake, 

Gibbs, 

Brush, 

Church, 

Dyer, 

Gibbud, 

Bryan, 

Churchill, 

Dixon, 

Gilbert, 

Budd, 

Clark, 

Dix, 

Gildersleeve, 

Buck, 

Clemens, 

Dudley, 

Gillett, 

APPENDIX. 


607 


Glover, 

Horton, 

Lines, 

Odell, 

Gold, 

Hosmer, 

Livermore, 

Ogden, 

Goodman, 

Hoyt, 

Lobdell, 

Olcott, 

Goodrich, 

Howard, 

Lockwood, 

Oldham, 

Goodwin, 

Hubbard, 

Loomis, 

Oldridge, 

Goodyear, 

Hubbell, 

Lowe, 

Olmsted, 

Grannis, 

Hudson, 

Lord, 

Orton, 

Grant, 

Husted, 

Lucas, 

Orvis, 

Graves, 

Humphrey, 

Ludlow 

Osborne. 

Gray, 

Hull, 

Lupton, 

Green, 

Hungerford, 

Lyman, 

Packer, 

Gregson, 

Hurd, 

Lyon. 

Paine, 

Gridley, 

Hutchinson 

Palmer 

Griffin, 

Mygatt, 

Palmes, 

Griswold, 

Ireland, 

Mapes, 

Pantry, 

Gunn. 

Ives. 

Marsh, 

Parker, 

Marshal], 

Parks, 

Hale, 

Jackson, 

Marshfield, 

Parkman, 

Hall, 

Jacox, 

Martin, 

Parsons, 

Hallett, 

James, 

Marvin, 

Partridge, 

Halsey, 

Jenner, 

Mason, 

Patterson, 

Hamlin, 

Jennings, 

Maynard, 

Patton, 

Hanford, 

Jessup, 

May, 

Peck, 

Hardy, 

Johnson, 

Mayo, 

Peacock, 

Harrison, 

Jones, 

Mead, 

Pell, 

Harris, 

Jordan, 

Meigs, 

Perkins, 

Hart, 

Judd, 

Mercer, 

Perry, 

Hartley, 

Judson. 

Merrick, 

Pettibone, 

Harvey, 

Merwin, 

Phelps, 

Hazard, 

Keeler, 

Merrill, 

Phillips, 

Hawkins, 

Kellogg, 

Miles, 

Pierce, 

Hawkes, 

Kelsey, 

Mills, 

Pinney, 

Haynes, 

Kenney, 

Minor, 

Pinckuey, 

Hayward, 

Kirby, 

Mitchell, 

Pitkin, 

Hayes, 

Kitchell, 

Moody, 

Pineheon, 

Heaton, 

Ketchum, 

Moore, 

Piatt, 

Hewett, 

Kilbourn, 

Morehouse, 

Plumb, 

Hicks, 

Kimberly 

Morgan, 

Pomeroy 

Higginson, 

King, 

Morton, 

Pond, 

Higley, 

Kirkham, 

Moses, 

Potter, 

Hill, 

Kjiowles. 

Moulthrop, 

Porter, 

Hills, 

Mudge, 

Post, 

Hillyar, 

Langdon, 

Mulford, 

Powell, 

Pline, 

Larribee, 

Munson. 

Pratt, 

Hitchcock, 

Lamberton, 

Prentice, 

Pliokok, 

Lathrop, 

Nash, 

Pritchard, 

Ploadley, 

Latham, 

Newbury, 

Preston, 

Houghton, 

Latimer, 

Nettleton, 

Prindle, 

Plolbrook, 

Lane, 

Newman, 

Prime, 

Holbridge, 

Lay, 

Newton, 

Provost, 

Hoi  comb. 

Law, 

Nichols, 

Prudden, 

Hollister, 

Lawrence, 

Noble, 

Pierson, 

Holt, 

Lee, 

INorth, 

Pine, 

Hopkins, 

Leete, 

Northam, 

Putnam, 

Hook, 

LeffingweU, 

Northrop, 

Purdy, 

Hooker, 

Leonard, 

Norton, 

Punderson, 

Hoskins, 

Leverett, 

Nott. 

Hosford, 

Lewis, 

Quieke, 

508 


APPENDIX. 


Quinly. 

Skidmore, 

Skinner, 

Randall, 

Smith, 

Rayner, 

Southmayd, 

Read, 

Spencer, 

Reeder, 

Stillson, 

Reeves, 

Stoddard, 

Reynolds, 

Stanton, 

Riggs, 

Staples, 

Puce, 

Starks, 

Richards, 

Stebbing, 

Riley, 

Stedman, 

Risley, 

Steele, 

Robbing, 

Stephens, 

Roberts, 

Stephenson, 

Robinson, 

Stillwell, 

Rogers, 

Strickland, 

Rossiter, 

Stocking, 

Rowland, 

Stone, 

Royce, 

Stoughton, 

Rudd, 

Stowe, 

Russell. 

Strong 

Stiles, 

Sadler, 

Sultan. 

Salter, 

Saltonstall, 

Tallcott, 

Sanford, 

Tallman, 

Sawyer, 

Tallmadge, 

Savage, 

Tapp, 

Seott, 

Tapping, 

Seranton, 

Taylor, 

Seudder, 

Tench, 

Seager, 

Terry, 

Seldon, 

Thorp, 

Selleck, 

Thompson 

Sension, 

Thornton, 

Seymour, 

Thrall, 

Shepard, 

Tibballs, 

Sherman, 

Tillton, 

Sedgwick, 

Tinker, 

Seeley, 

Titterton, 

Shute, 

Titus, 

Sherwood, 

Tomlinson, 

Sill, 

Tompkins, 

Simpson, 

Torrey, 

Tong, 

Westcott, 

Tracy, 

Wesley, 

Treat, 

Weston, 

Trowbridge, 

Westwood, 

Trumbull, 

Wetmore, 

Try, 

Wheeler, 

Tucker, 

White, 

Tudor, 

Whitehead, 

Turner, 

Whitfield, 

Turney, 

Whiting, 

Turrell. 

Whitman, 

Whitmore, 

Uffoot, 

Wyatt, 

Underbill, 

Wicks, 

Upson, 

Wickham, 

Usher. 

Wilcox, 

Wilcoxson, 

Vaill, 

Wilkinson, 

Vincent, 

Wilkins, 

Veare. 

Willard, 

Willis, 

Wade, 

Williams, 

Wadhams, 

Willett, 

Wadsworth, 

Willey, 

Wakely, 

Wilson, 

Wakeman, 

Wilton, 

Waller, 

Winchell, 

Waples, 

Wines, 

Ward, 

Winthrop, 

Wareham, 

Wolcott, 

Warner, 

Wood, 

Warren, 

Woodruff, 

Waterhouse, 

Woodford, 

Waters, 

Wooster, 

Watson, 

Woodcock, 

Watts, 

Works, 

Wainwright, 

Wright. 

Webb, 

Webster, 

Yale, 

Weed, 

Yates, 

Welch, 

Young, 

Wellman, 

Youngs. 

Welles, 

West, 

Westall, 

University  of 
Connecticut 

Libraries 


